Ed Whitson

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 3 in · 195 lb

BornMay 19, 1955 · Johnson City, TN, USA

MLB debutSeptember 4, 1977

Final gameSeptember 29, 1991

Seasons15 (1977–1991)

Pittsburgh Pirates 1977–1979; San Francisco Giants 1979–1981; Cleveland Indians 1982; San Diego Padres 1983–1984; New York Yankees 1985–1986; San Diego Padres 1986–1991

Percentile snapshot

1990 season — qualified pitchers

31.1

45.9

66.2

60.8

71.6

SHO

85.1

215

18.9

82.4

89.2

127

228.7

85.1

ERA

2.60

93.2

WHIP

1.146

83.8

K/9

5.00

28.4

FIP

3.07

87.8

FIP-

80.4

87.8

ERA+

146.8

95.9

sWAR

5.7

95.9

of 75 qualified 1990 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

97.1

26.3

sWAR

18.1

92.7

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	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1977	5	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	-126.7	-100.0	.000	0.2
1978	43	12	11	0	2	0	0	0	0	6	.182	.182	.182	.364	-14.2	0.9	.170	1.1
1979	37	55	45	2	5	0	0	2	1	15	.111	.130	.111	.242	-44.9	-32.1	.117	0.5
1980	34	76	66	2	6	0	0	4	1	21	.091	.104	.091	.195	-60.9	-44.1	.095	2.7
1981	22	45	33	2	3	0	0	1	3	13	.091	.167	.091	.258	-29.6	-24.1	.142	0.1
1982	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.1
1983	31	48	44	1	8	0	0	3	2	11	.182	.217	.182	.399	9.3	14.0	.195	0.1
1984	36	68	61	0	3	0	0	1	1	12	.049	.065	.049	.114	-86.3	-67.4	.057	2.1
1985	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.1
1986	31	20	18	1	3	0	0	0	0	8	.167	.167	.167	.333	-19.8	-6.7	.155	-2.1
1987	36	76	65	1	8	1	0	4	1	17	.123	.136	.138	.275	-36.7	-25.7	.128	0.1
1988	34	76	66	4	11	3	0	3	1	23	.167	.179	.212	.391	3.1	13.3	.182	1.2
1989	36	84	72	4	10	4	0	4	5	19	.139	.195	.194	.389	7.8	12.2	.190	4.7
1990	33	82	67	6	10	1	1	4	2	16	.149	.174	.209	.383	-4.5	5.0	.178	5.7
1991	13	27	24	1	3	0	0	1	1	6	.125	.160	.125	.285	-29.9	-19.3	.141	-0.5

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1977	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	11	6	9	10	0	15.7	3.45	1.277	5.74	3.18	80.5	114.6	0.2
1978	43	0	5	6	4	0	0	66	27	37	64	5	74.0	3.28	1.392	7.78	3.35	91.1	112.1	1.1
1979	37	24	7	11	1	2	0	151	72	75	93	11	158.0	4.10	1.430	5.30	3.94	107.2	89.1	0.5
1980	34	34	11	13	0	6	2	222	73	56	90	7	211.7	3.10	1.313	3.83	3.18	90.3	113.3	2.7
1981	22	22	6	9	0	2	1	130	55	47	65	10	123.0	4.02	1.439	4.76	3.87	113.4	84.7	0.1
1982	40	9	4	2	2	1	1	91	39	58	61	6	107.7	3.26	1.384	5.10	3.90	95.0	125.9	2.1
1983	31	21	5	7	1	2	0	143	69	50	81	23	144.3	4.30	1.337	5.05	4.68	133.0	81.8	0.1
1984	31	31	14	8	0	1	0	181	68	42	103	16	189.0	3.24	1.180	4.90	3.52	98.6	110.2	2.1
1985	30	30	10	8	0	2	2	201	86	43	89	19	158.7	4.88	1.538	5.05	4.03	99.7	82.8	0.1
1986	31	16	6	9	0	0	0	139	78	60	73	13	112.7	6.23	1.766	5.83	4.56	119.6	61.2	-2.1
1987	36	34	10	13	0	3	1	197	108	64	135	36	205.7	4.73	1.269	5.91	4.81	121.0	84.1	0.1
1988	34	33	13	11	0	3	1	202	86	45	118	17	205.3	3.77	1.203	5.17	3.31	97.3	90.1	1.2
1989	33	33	16	11	0	5	1	198	67	48	117	22	227.0	2.66	1.084	4.64	3.59	102.8	131.5	4.7
1990	32	32	14	9	0	6	3	215	66	47	127	13	228.7	2.60	1.146	5.00	3.07	80.4	146.8	5.7
1991	13	12	4	6	0	2	0	93	44	17	40	13	78.7	5.03	1.398	4.58	4.57	121.3	74.9	-0.5

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

461

673

576

RBI

169

.1250

OBP

.1515

SLG

.1458

OPS

.2973

Pitching

G (P)

452

333

246th-most career GS

126

402nd-most career W

123

320th-most career L

SHO

2,240

333rd-most career IP

SO (P)

1,266

350th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

698

395th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.793

WHIP

1.3116

K/9

5.09

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
1990-04-25	CHC @ SD Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	4
1987-05-10	CHC @ SD Gameday	3	0	2	0	0	2	2
1983-09-24	SD @ CIN Gameday	3	0	2	0	0	0	2
1989-05-30	PHI @ SD Gameday	4	1	2	0	0	0	2
1988-06-07	CIN @ SD Gameday	2	0	1	1	0	2	2

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1987-09-02	NYM @ SD Gameday	8.1	9	4	4	2	10	2
1984-08-19	WSH @ SD Gameday	8.0	9	3	3	1	10	1
1991-05-05	SD @ WSH Gameday	9.0	7	3	3	3	8	1
1988-08-18	WSH @ SD Gameday	8.0	7	3	3	2	8	1
1983-09-13	SF @ SD Gameday	7.2	6	3	3	2	8	2

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

1× 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.