Don Elston
Chicago Cubs 1953; Brooklyn Dodgers 1957; Chicago Cubs 1957–1964
Percentile snapshot
No qualified season. This player never reached the qualification floor — 3.1 plate appearances, or one inning, per game his team played — in any archived season, so there is no season population to rank him inside.
Career, era-adjusted
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -128.8 | -100.0 | .000 | -0.5 |
| 1957 | 40 | 40 | 37 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | .108 | .132 | .108 | .240 | -49.6 | -34.4 | .115 | 1.8 |
| 1958 | 69 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .357 | .357 | .357 | .714 | 91.8 | 91.4 | .324 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 65 | 22 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .211 | .211 | .211 | .421 | 2.5 | 12.9 | .192 | 1.7 |
| 1960 | 60 | 26 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | .125 | .125 | .125 | .250 | -48.2 | -31.1 | .114 | 1.7 |
| 1961 | 58 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .182 | .182 | .182 | .364 | -15.6 | -4.1 | .165 | -0.6 |
| 1962 | 57 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -126.3 | -100.0 | .000 | 1.8 |
| 1963 | 51 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -135.6 | -100.0 | .000 | 1.2 |
| 1964 | 48 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .167 | .167 | .167 | .333 | -21.9 | -7.2 | .153 | -0.6 |
Pitching
| Season | G | GS | W | L | SV | CG | SHO | H | ER | BB | SO | HR | IP | ERA | WHIP | K/9 | FIP | FIP- | ERA+ | sWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5.0 | 14.40 | 2.200 | 3.60 | 4.42 | 100.3 | 30.6 | -0.5 |
| 1957 | 40 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 140 | 57 | 55 | 103 | 15 | 145.0 | 3.54 | 1.345 | 6.39 | 3.68 | 94.6 | 110.0 | 1.8 |
| 1958 | 69 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 31 | 39 | 84 | 9 | 97.0 | 2.88 | 1.175 | 7.79 | 3.22 | 82.1 | 136.3 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 65 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 77 | 36 | 46 | 82 | 11 | 97.7 | 3.32 | 1.259 | 7.56 | 3.91 | 99.0 | 119.1 | 1.7 |
| 1960 | 60 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 48 | 55 | 85 | 17 | 127.0 | 3.40 | 1.291 | 6.02 | 4.45 | 117.9 | 110.9 | 1.7 |
| 1961 | 58 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 58 | 45 | 59 | 11 | 93.3 | 5.59 | 1.639 | 5.69 | 4.57 | 110.3 | 74.2 | -0.6 |
| 1962 | 57 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 18 | 32 | 37 | 6 | 66.3 | 2.44 | 1.342 | 5.02 | 4.27 | 104.4 | 167.7 | 1.8 |
| 1963 | 51 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 22 | 21 | 41 | 6 | 70.0 | 2.83 | 1.114 | 5.27 | 3.43 | 99.0 | 122.4 | 1.2 |
| 1964 | 48 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 32 | 34 | 26 | 4 | 54.3 | 5.30 | 1.877 | 4.31 | 4.79 | 130.5 | 69.3 | -0.6 |
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
Pitching
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 | HR | RBI | BB | TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1958-09-24 | CHC @ SF Gameday | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 1957-07-05 | CHC @ ATL Gameday | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1957-08-25 | CHC @ PIT Gameday | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1959-06-05 | CHC @ PIT Gameday | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1957-07-29 | PHI @ CHC Gameday | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Pitching
| Date | Game | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957-06-30 | LAD @ CHC Gameday | 8.0 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| 1957-08-31 | STL @ CHC Gameday | 8.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| 1957-08-04 | PIT @ CHC Gameday | 6.2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| 1960-07-09 | CHC @ SF Gameday | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 1957-06-23 | SF @ CHC Gameday | 3.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 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
Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.