What is the most physically demanding position in baseball?

13 votes for catcher and 3 for pitcher, with most respondents sure of themselves. My
ranking from most to least physically demanding is centerfield, short, pitcher, second base,
right field, third base, catcher, left fielder, first baseman.

Let’s look at some statistics. The table below shows the average age of major leaguers at
each position and the percentage for each position played in rookie years and final years.

Centerfielders are the youngest. 11% of rookies play center, but by their final year, only 9%
are left in center field. Shortstops are young too, and the 12% of players who were
shortstops as rookies have dwindled to 8% in their final years. At the other extreme, first
basemen are the oldest. Only 8% of rookies come up as first basemen, but by the final year
of careers, 12% of players are at first.

Players are younger in the more physically demanding positions for two reasons. One is that
you lose physical skills over time, through age and injury. Another is that the more
physically demanding the defensive position is, the less a player needs hitting skills to stay
in the league, and the more important the defensive position is. A team cannot afford to
keep a shortstop whose fielding skills have declined, and he often doesn’t have the bat to
be worth playing in less physically demanding positions. A third baseman or catcher can be
moved to first, and often hits well enough to justify it (they can also move to DH, but then
they drop out of the fielding statistics).

For the same reasons, teams bring up more rookies in the physically demanding positions,
because they drop away faster than the less physically demanding position players. By final
career years you see 50% more first basemen than among rookies, while rookies have 50%
more shortstops than among final-year players.

Centerfield demands speed, and when you lose a step, you move to other positions.
Shortstop demands quickness, and when you lose a bit of that, you move. First base makes
the fewest demands, so that’s where players end up after their physical skills decline.
Pitcher and catcher are a bit different. Pitchers are the third-youngest, and have the second
biggest decline between rookie and final years. But pitchers seldom move to other
positions, instead they come up as starters and end their careers as relievers or occasional
starters. So they’re still pitchers in their final years, but they pitch fewer innings than rookie
pitchers.

Catchers often come up as hitters, and are put in the outfield or first or third base while they
gain experience as a backup catcher. That’s why even though they’re the third oldest
players, they’re more likely to be in their final year than rookies. Catching and pitching are
the only positions in which players’ defensive skills increase much in early career years.

We can also look at players moving position. The table below shows infield position in one
year in the rows, and infield position played the following year in the columns. You see
players move from left to right, from the more physically demanding positions (like
shortstop) to the less physically demanding ones (like first base). Once you get to first base,
you stay there.

The table below shows outfield position in one year in the rows, and outfield position the
following year in the columns. Centerfielders often move to right, and less often to left. Left
fielders move less often, and when they do, it’s usually to right. Once you get to right field,
you stay there.

Clearly centerfield is the most demanding, since players move from it as they lose speed to
the other fields. That people move from center to right suggests right is the next most
demanding. But the fact that right fielders stay in right, while left fielders often move to
right—also that left fielders are more likely to move to center than right fielders are—
suggest that left field is more demanding than right.

I think the answer there is right field is more important. Right fielders stay in right because
they’re better outfielders in the first place, not because they lose the ability to play left field.