How long is seven years in baseball? MLB's 2011 leaders in games played (Prince Fielder), at-bats (Ichiro Suzuki), Wins Above Replacement (Cliff Lee), hits (Adrian Gonzalez and Michael Young) and stolen bases (Michael Bourn) are all out of baseball. Your top home-run hitter was Jose Bautista; your best position player by WAR (Baseball-Reference) was Jacoby Ellsbury. It was a long time ago. Seven years is a lifetime.
MLB teams are always obsessed with team control over players, about having them wrapped up and secured on their club for as long as possible. But here's a fun factoid: Of the top 30 hitters by WAR (FanGraphs) in 2011, only eight are still with the same team now as they were then.