MLB / Players

Catfish Hunter

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 0 in · 190 lb

BornApril 8, 1946 · Hertford, NC, USA

MLB debutMay 13, 1965

Final gameSeptember 17, 1979

Seasons15 (1965–1979)

Kansas City Athletics 1965–1967; Oakland Athletics 1968–1974; New York Yankees 1975–1979

Percentile snapshot

1976 season — qualified pitchers

66.7

80.5

78.2

12.6

93.1

SHO

27.6

268

4.6

117

47.1

173

89.7

298.7

97.7

ERA

3.53

24.1

WHIP

1.125

87.4

K/9

5.21

FIP

3.39

48.3

FIP-

97.7

43.7

ERA+

98.4

24.1

sWAR

2.7

of 88 qualified 1976 pitchers (min 159 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

105.2

58.1

sWAR

44.7

98.4

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	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1965	32	46	40	3	6	1	0	0	1	0	14	0	.150	.150	.175	.325	-24.3	-8.0	.148	0.0
1966	30	65	59	5	9	1	1	0	4	3	21	1	.153	.194	.203	.397	8.4	15.4	.187	0.4
1967	37	94	92	9	18	4	0	2	6	0	32	0	.196	.196	.304	.500	37.1	47.5	.225	4.2
1968	39	90	82	9	19	3	0	1	8	0	19	0	.232	.232	.305	.537	54.9	64.2	.246	1.4
1969	42	89	85	5	19	2	0	1	9	1	24	0	.224	.227	.282	.510	35.6	45.4	.232	3.2
1970	43	99	90	10	18	4	1	1	6	2	23	0	.200	.215	.300	.515	34.8	43.7	.233	2.3
1971	38	109	103	14	36	1	1	1	12	2	11	1	.350	.362	.408	.770	125.2	122.5	.357	5.4
1972	39	116	105	5	23	0	0	0	5	0	16	0	.219	.215	.219	.434	19.3	33.8	.202	6.5
1973	37	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	522.7	484.9	.929	3.4
1974	41	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.5
1975	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	7.6
1976	36	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-126.4	-100.0	.000	2.7
1977	22	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.2
1978	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.3
1979	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.4

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1965	32	20	8	8	0	3	2	124	63	46	82	21	133.0	4.26	1.278	5.55	4.30	123.4	81.8	0.0
1966	30	25	9	11	0	4	0	158	79	64	103	17	176.7	4.02	1.257	5.25	3.64	107.4	84.2	0.4
1967	35	35	13	17	0	13	5	209	81	84	196	16	259.7	2.81	1.128	6.79	2.70	85.3	113.0	4.2
1968	36	34	13	13	1	11	2	210	87	69	172	29	234.0	3.35	1.192	6.62	3.30	113.8	86.7	1.4
1969	38	35	12	15	0	10	3	210	92	85	150	34	247.0	3.35	1.194	5.47	4.03	116.0	103.6	3.2
1970	40	40	18	14	0	9	1	253	111	74	178	32	262.3	3.81	1.247	6.11	3.61	100.8	93.9	2.3
1971	37	37	21	11	0	16	4	225	90	80	181	27	273.7	2.96	1.114	5.95	3.24	96.9	112.9	5.4
1972	38	37	21	7	0	16	5	200	67	70	191	21	295.3	2.04	.914	5.82	2.64	91.5	141.5	6.5
1973	36	36	21	5	0	11	3	222	95	69	124	39	256.3	3.34	1.135	4.35	4.41	122.8	107.6	3.4
1974	41	41	25	12	0	23	6	268	88	46	143	25	318.3	2.49	.986	4.04	3.16	93.8	135.6	6.5
1975	39	39	23	14	0	30	7	248	94	83	177	25	328.0	2.58	1.009	4.86	3.27	88.2	143.8	7.6
1976	36	36	17	15	0	21	2	268	117	68	173	28	298.7	3.53	1.125	5.21	3.39	97.7	98.4	2.7
1977	22	22	9	9	0	8	1	137	75	47	52	29	143.3	4.71	1.284	3.27	5.69	142.9	84.6	0.2
1978	21	20	12	6	0	5	1	98	47	35	56	16	118.0	3.58	1.127	4.27	4.28	116.9	102.1	1.3
1979	19	19	2	9	0	1	0	128	62	34	34	15	105.0	5.31	1.543	2.91	4.98	121.1	77.4	-0.4

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

515

710

658

149

RBI

160

.2264

OBP

.2340

SLG

.2872

OPS

.5212

Pitching

G (P)

500

442nd-most career G (P)

476

67th-most career GS

224

72nd-most career W

166

101st-most career L

181

170th-most career CG

SHO

38th-most career SHO

3,449

79th-most career IP

SO (P)

2,012

89th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

954

133rd-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.256

291st-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1341

53rd-lowest career WHIP

K/9

5.25

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	HR	RBI	TB
1971-07-23	ATH @ DET Gameday	4	1	3	0	1	4	6
1970-08-21	ATH @ CLE Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	1	5
1968-05-08	MIN @ ATH Gameday	4	0	3	1	0	3	4
1968-05-03	ATH @ BOS Gameday	4	2	3	1	0	2	4
1965-09-24	BOS @ ATH Gameday	4	2	3	1	0	0	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1975-09-27	BAL @ NYY Gameday	10.0	6	2	2	2	12	1
1967-09-12	ATH @ BOS Gameday	7.1	5	3	3	2	12	1
1972-09-27	MIN @ ATH Gameday	10.0	6	1	1	0	11	0
1968-05-08	MIN @ ATH Gameday	9.0	0	0	0	0	11	0
1966-05-18	LAA @ ATH Gameday	9.0	4	1	1	4	10	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.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1987 (BBWAA)

1× Cy Young Award8× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.