MLB rosters are not yet set, so it’s hard to get a real, firm grasp on who will make each team and how much they’ll play. We know one thing for sure: The Phillies are young. And while some people (a person) think Matt Klentak is a fraud who needs to be fired, most see the potential of these young players, even if a lot is uncertain. But this year is a big one. This is when we’ll really learn what you have from many of your prospects in the bigs.

Beyond the Box Score’s Henry Druschel used FanGraphs’ projected rosters (and playing time) to figure out just how young MLB teams are going to be this year. Here’s the methodology:

I calculated the average age of each team, weighted by playing time (as projected over at the FanGraphs depth charts). I combined position players and pitchers, putting innings and plate appearances on the same scale, via the roughly 1:4 ratio of the former to the latter that they tend to have in a given season.

With that all math’d out, the Phillies end up as the league’s 2nd-youngest team, with an average age of 27 (the Padres are #1 at 26.6). The league’s oldest team is the Toronto Blue Jays, at an average of 31-years-old. But youth doesn’t mean anything if the young guys are bench warmers. Using playing time data from FanGraphs’s depth charts, Druschel looked at the projected plate appearances, innings pitched, and PAs plus total batters faced. The Phils are third in projected plate appearances, first in proj. innings pitched, and first in PAs+TBF.

Howie Kendrick is the only projected starter in the field older than 30 – if we believe that Tommy Joseph isn’t 38. Their rotation will probably look like this: 26, 23, 29, 24, 32. The infield? From left to right: 24, 26, 27, 25. Every single one of them is younger than me. Every one. And that doesn’t even count prospects who will start the year in the minors (or deep-ish on the Phils bench) like Nick Williams (23), Jorge Alfaro (23), J.P. Crawford (21), and Roman Quinn (23).

Baseball is a sport of a billion variables. Injuries, lack of development, roster construction, etc.  are all things that can hinder a young player’s career. But the Phillies are set up to let these guys make something, even if it takes some time.