Caleb Joeph Is 28.

Last Wednesday, Caleb Joseph started at catcher for the Orioles at the age of 27 (though his June birthday has him in the age 28 class cohort which means more than half the season this year he will be 28).  He had been left open for a few years in the Rule 5 draft, but no other team in baseball considered him as having a good shot to make their club and stay on the roster all year long.  That left him back in the Orioles organization where he moved up to Norfolk for his age 28 year, which is pretty old to be making a firm move up to AAA.  With Matt Wieters' misfortune, Joesph found his opportunity.

In doing so, Joseph managed to do something that only 10 Oriole position players had done before him: debut at age 28 or older.  Below is the full list:

Rk		Year	Age	G	PA	BA	OBP	SLG
1	Alejandro Freire	2005	30	25	72	.246	.319	.338
2	P.J. Forbes	1998	30	9	10	.100	.100	.100
3	Chico Garcia	1954	29	39	71	.113	.211	.177
4	Carlos Mendez	2003	29	26	46	.222	.217	.267
5	Chico Fernandez	1968	29	24	19	.111	.158	.111
6	Carl Powis	1957	29	15	52	.195	.314	.317
7	Howie Clark	2002	28	14	58	.302	.362	.396
8	Napoleon Calzado	2005	28	4	5	.200	.200	.200
9	Mike Moriarty	2002	28	8	16	.188	.188	.250
10	Ricky Jones	1986	28	16	39	.182	.308	.242

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/7/2014.

That is not exactly the greatest list one would wish to be on.  Of those players, well, none of them wound up doing anything much of importance.  The most renowned among them would be Howie Clark because he was the recipient of an Alex Rodriguez shout out while Clark was camped out under a fly ball at third base.

Though, maybe the list above is unfair.  Catchers sometimes need a lot of time to hone their craft and be capable at a MLB level.  Let us look at catcher debuts over the past 20 years for players in their age 28 seasons and above.

	Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	BA	OBP	SLG
Chris Coste	2006	33	PHI	65	213	.328	.376	.505
Clemente Alvarez	2000	32	PHI	2	5	.200	.200	.200
Darron Cox	1999	31	MON	15	27	.240	.296	.400
Cody Clark	2013	31	HOU	16	40	.105	.128	.132
Frank Charles	2000	31	HOU	4	7	.429	.429	.571
Tom Wilson	2001	30	OAK	9	24	.190	.250	.476
Max St. Pierre	2010	30	DET	6	9	.222	.222	.333
Erik Kratz	2010	30	PIT	9	36	.118	.167	.118
Ken Huckaby	2001	30	ARI	1	1	.000	.000	.000
Chris Heintz	2005	30	MIN	8	26	.200	.231	.320
Brandon Harper	2006	30	WSN	18	47	.293	.362	.512
J.C. Boscan	2010	30	ATL	1	1		1.000
B.J. Waszgis	2000	29	TEX	24	51	.222	.294	.244
Mark Strittmatter	1998	29	COL	4	4	.000	.000	.000
Mandy Romero	1997	29	SDP	21	50	.208	.240	.333
Guillermo Rodriguez	2007	29	SFG	39	98	.253	.327	.356
Chris Robinson	2013	29	SDP	8	12	.167	.167	.417
Blake Lalli	2012	29	CHC	6	16	.133	.188	.133
Tuffy Gosewisch	2013	29	ARI	14	47	.178	.174	.222
Joe Depastino	2003	29	NYM	2	2	.000	.000	.000
Jamie Burke	2001	29	ANA	9	5	.200	.200	.200
Jorge Brito	1995	29	COL	18	55	.216	.259	.275
Dusty Wathan	2002	28	KCR	3	6	.600	.667	.800
Matt Tupman	2008	28	KCR	1	1	1.000	1.000	1.000
Matt Treanor	2004	28	FLA	29	61	.236	.311	.273
Kevin Richardson	2009	28	TEX	4	6	.500	.500	.500
Hector Ortiz	1998	28	KCR	4	4	.000	.000	.000
Miguel Ojeda	2003	28	SDP	61	163	.234	.331	.362
Cody McKay	2002	28	OAK	2	4	.667	.500	.667
Steve Holm	2008	28	SFG	49	98	.262	.357	.405
Brian Esposito	2007	28	STL	1	0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/7/2014.

Thirty-one players make the list.  Of those players, Matt Treanor (468 games), Chris Coste (299 games), Tom Wilson (214 games), Miguel Ojeda (212 games), Jamie Burke (191 games), Ken Huckaby (161 games), and Erik Kratz (138 games) saw significant time in the Majors.  That is about one fifth of the names listed and those seven all had better defensive assessments than Joseph.

In other words, all hope is not lost.  Based on historical evidence, we should not expect Joseph to be a starting caliber catcher, but he does stand a 20% chance or so for being a guy who might see one or two seasons as a backup for someone else.  Or maybe, just maybe, he changes the script.