[The Game]

You can edit all the names then export them and edit in their career stats. see in in 3 years when you are done. I tried this back on 11 using my last season on High Heat. I gave up as it seemed to be too arduous. I decided to do a fictional- historical replay instead. That is what my EBL vs MLB league is. I started with 1999 MLB which had just 2 fictional players and add my EBL league in 2003. I use modifiers and finances starting with 1973. I am now in 2024. While it would have been great to start with 2037, I last played 2036 on HH, in some ways this is better. i have been able to do more and have more leagues that only ran in my mind before. i have been lucky to get some great modders make all of my jerseys & logos. i now can make some of them myself.
I suggest doing it this way and let the AI fill in gaps with any players you no longer have stats for or making some players as clones of real players.
In my orig game which was started on Tony Larussa 3, continued on Hardball 2 & 3 then High Heat 99-2003 i had a 3B Charles Crim who was basically a Carney Larnsford type. As a clone of Chipper Jones he never was great in OOTP as he was before.
I can give you additional ideas on how to recreate your league the way i do mine if you want. i have stats for the majority of my players 2003-2025 and stats for 99% of my players 2027-2036.