MLB / Players

Carl Mays

HandednessBats Left · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 11 in · 195 lb

BornNovember 12, 1891 · Liberty, KY, USA

MLB debutApril 15, 1915

Final gameSeptember 24, 1929

Seasons15 (1915–1929)

Boston Red Sox 1915–1919; New York Yankees 1919–1923; Cincinnati Reds 1924–1928; New York Giants 1929

Percentile snapshot

1926 season — qualified pitchers

82.2

92.2

94.6

23.3

47.3

98.4

SHO

86.8

286

3.1

14.7

51.9

83.7

281.0

97.7

ERA

3.14

79.1

WHIP

1.206

89.9

K/9

1.86

8.5

FIP

3.24

96.1

FIP-

88.1

79.8

ERA+

117.2

64.3

sWAR

4.7

89.1

of 130 qualified 1926 pitchers (min 157 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

119.5

88.8

sWAR

56.1

99.2

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1915	38	44	38	3	9	1	0	0	0	3	7	0	0	.237	.310	.263	.573	77.9	75.8	.292	1.8
1916	48	96	77	8	18	1	2	0	8	16	19	0	0	.234	.366	.299	.664	112.1	102.8	.344	4.3
1917	35	115	107	9	27	3	3	0	14	6	11	0	0	.252	.292	.336	.628	89.3	94.5	.306	6.6
1918	38	119	104	10	30	3	3	0	5	9	15	1	0	.288	.357	.375	.732	125.1	124.8	.362	5.7
1919	35	105	98	9	22	3	0	0	6	4	5	0	0	.224	.255	.255	.510	39.4	44.1	.246	6.0
1920	45	122	109	10	26	4	2	0	13	5	12	0	0	.239	.272	.312	.584	48.9	53.7	.274	5.9
1921	51	156	143	18	49	5	1	2	22	4	7	0	0	.343	.365	.434	.798	100.9	102.9	.367	8.7
1922	35	97	92	7	23	1	1	0	7	2	10	0	0	.250	.266	.283	.549	35.7	42.6	.256	3.7
1923	23	31	27	2	4	0	1	1	3	3	4	0	0	.148	.233	.333	.567	42.7	48.5	.266	-1.1
1924	38	87	83	9	24	6	2	1	12	4	12	0	0	.289	.322	.446	.768	104.7	108.0	.346	4.4
1925	12	18	16	3	4	0	1	0	3	2	1	0	1	.250	.333	.375	.708	85.8	84.4	.328	1.1
1926	39	108	98	12	22	2	4	0	8	3	7	0	0	.224	.248	.327	.574	50.3	56.4	.263	4.7
1927	14	33	32	5	13	1	1	1	1	0	2	0	0	.406	.406	.594	1.000	167.4	170.0	.450	1.6
1928	14	27	27	5	8	1	0	0	3	0	2	0	0	.296	.296	.333	.630	59.7	66.1	.288	0.8
1929	37	41	34	3	12	1	0	0	5	5	2	0	0	.353	.436	.382	.818	113.6	106.6	.388	2.0

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1915	38	6	6	5	7	2	0	119	38	21	65	0	131.7	2.60	1.063	4.44	1.98	71.1	107.3	1.8
1916	44	24	18	13	3	14	2	208	65	74	76	3	245.0	2.39	1.151	2.79	2.88	105.0	114.9	4.3
1917	35	33	22	9	0	27	2	230	56	74	91	1	289.0	1.74	1.052	2.83	2.47	95.6	148.2	6.6
1918	35	33	21	13	0	30	8	230	72	81	114	2	293.3	2.21	1.060	3.50	2.41	90.6	120.5	5.7
1919	34	29	14	14	2	26	3	227	62	77	107	5	266.0	2.10	1.143	3.62	2.95	95.2	148.0	6.0
1920	45	37	26	11	2	26	6	310	106	84	92	13	312.0	3.06	1.263	2.65	3.73	97.5	125.0	5.9
1921	49	38	27	9	7	30	1	332	114	76	70	11	336.7	3.05	1.212	1.87	3.98	92.9	140.6	8.7
1922	34	29	12	14	2	21	1	257	96	50	41	12	240.0	3.60	1.279	1.54	3.97	97.9	112.5	3.7
1923	23	7	5	2	0	2	0	119	56	32	16	8	81.3	6.20	1.857	1.77	5.12	129.6	63.7	-1.1
1924	37	27	20	9	0	15	2	238	79	36	63	3	226.0	3.15	1.212	2.51	3.10	83.6	117.9	4.4
1925	12	5	3	5	2	3	0	60	19	13	10	0	51.7	3.31	1.413	1.74	3.59	87.8	123.6	1.1
1926	39	33	19	12	1	24	3	286	98	53	58	3	281.0	3.14	1.206	1.86	3.24	88.1	117.2	4.7
1927	14	9	3	7	0	6	0	89	32	10	17	1	82.0	3.51	1.207	1.87	3.14	83.2	107.4	1.6
1928	14	7	4	1	1	4	1	67	27	22	10	3	62.7	3.88	1.420	1.44	4.13	106.1	100.3	0.8
1929	37	8	7	2	4	1	0	140	59	31	32	8	123.0	4.32	1.390	2.34	4.44	95.8	107.3	2.0

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

502

1,199

1,085

113

291

RBI

110

116

.2682

OBP

.3126

SLG

.3502

OPS

.6628

Pitching

G (P)

490

470th-most career G (P)

325

281st-most career GS

207

107th-most career W

126

298th-most career L

231

100th-most career CG

SHO

125th-most career SHO

3,021

135th-most career IP

SO (P)

862

BB allowed

734

334th-most career BB allowed

ERA

2.916

149th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2068

181st-lowest career WHIP

K/9

2.57

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	TB
1926-08-07	CIN @ SF Gameday	4	2	2	0	2	1	6
1929-09-11	SF @ PIT Gameday	5	0	4	1	0	2	5
1922-06-04	ATH @ NYY Gameday	4	0	3	0	1	1	5
1918-05-20	CLE @ BOS Gameday	4	2	3	0	1	0	5
1927-04-24	CHC @ CIN Gameday	4	1	3	0	1	0	5

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1919-08-07	BAL @ NYY Gameday	9.0	6	2	2	3	9	1
1918-04-16	ATH @ BOS Gameday	9.0	1	0	0	2	8	0
1918-05-20	CLE @ BOS Gameday	9.0	5	1	1	2	8	0
1919-04-23	BOS @ NYY Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	4	8	0
1916-07-14	BAL @ BOS Gameday	15.0	9	0	0	8	7	0

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.