While a lot of people sort of dismiss the accumulators, I think it's much harder for a player to pull off than we think.
Basically, a player has to want to keep playing, be good enough AND affordable enough that he doesn't get replaced. And also has to be liked enough that he doesn't get replaced.
As things move more towards complex modern stats, I believe that gets much tougher. A player in his last few years is usually pretty much average. So teams will be more likely to replace them with someone at least equally average but at a price that's a few million a year less.
It's also less likely that a player who's already made maybe 100 million will want to stick around putting in the effort it takes to stay at the big league level. Especially if they end up with one of those nagging injuries.
Not that there won't be players like that, or ones that stick around for as many extra years they can get because they love playing, just that they will become less common.
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