Jim Kaat

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 4 in · 205 lb

BornNovember 7, 1938 · Zeeland, MI, USA

MLB debutAugust 2, 1959

Final gameJuly 1, 1983

Seasons25 (1959–1983)

Washington Senators 1959–1960; Minnesota Twins 1961–1972; Chicago White Sox 1973; Minnesota Twins 1973; Chicago White Sox 1974–1975; Philadelphia Phillies 1976–1978; New York Yankees 1979; Philadelphia Phillies 1979; New York Yankees 1980; St. Louis Cardinals 1980–1983

Percentile snapshot

1976 season — qualified pitchers

82.8

74.7

29.9

19.5

24.1

SHO

11.5

241

17.2

28.7

97.7

19.5

227.7

59.8

ERA

3.48

WHIP

1.199

72.4

K/9

3.28

13.8

FIP

3.54

29.9

FIP-

99.5

37.9

ERA+

102.2

36.8

sWAR

2.7

of 88 qualified 1976 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

106.7

63.7

sWAR

62.7

99.5

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
1959	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-123.9	-100.0	.000	-0.5
1960	13	14	14	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	.143	.143	.143	.286	-42.6	-23.4	.131	-0.5
1961	47	71	63	10	15	3	1	0	1	4	13	0	0	.238	.294	.317	.612	59.6	61.1	.284	3.0
1962	48	109	100	9	18	3	1	1	10	8	40	0	0	.180	.239	.260	.499	27.5	32.6	.233	5.9
1963	36	66	61	2	8	1	0	1	8	2	19	0	0	.131	.185	.197	.381	-1.7	6.6	.181	0.6
1964	46	98	83	11	14	1	0	3	11	11	31	0	0	.169	.263	.289	.552	53.8	53.9	.260	4.2
1965	56	101	93	6	23	4	0	1	9	3	29	2	0	.247	.265	.323	.588	58.3	64.3	.266	5.7
1966	47	124	118	12	23	2	1	2	13	5	41	0	0	.195	.228	.280	.507	35.7	42.4	.232	6.7
1967	45	107	99	7	17	3	1	1	4	7	26	0	0	.172	.226	.253	.479	31.3	37.5	.228	4.3
1968	36	79	77	7	12	3	0	0	5	2	18	0	0	.156	.177	.195	.372	-5.9	11.0	.176	2.5
1969	43	95	87	8	18	8	0	2	10	4	20	0	0	.207	.247	.368	.615	64.1	70.0	.280	3.6
1970	56	88	76	17	15	1	0	1	8	6	20	0	0	.197	.262	.250	.512	35.4	41.9	.240	3.1
1971	54	102	93	6	15	3	0	0	5	2	16	2	0	.161	.179	.194	.372	-10.3	5.2	.176	3.2
1972	24	47	45	3	13	3	0	2	4	1	16	0	1	.289	.304	.489	.793	132.3	129.2	.363	3.5
1973	38	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.1
1974	42	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-129.8	-100.0	.000	5.3
1975	43	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5.7
1976	42	83	79	4	14	3	1	1	8	2	24	0	0	.177	.195	.278	.474	21.6	32.7	.219	2.7
1977	36	56	53	4	10	3	0	0	2	2	12	0	0	.189	.218	.245	.463	16.3	23.3	.215	-0.9
1978	26	50	48	4	7	1	0	0	4	0	15	0	0	.146	.163	.167	.330	-20.2	-7.2	.157	0.4
1979	43	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.500	.000	.500	126.1	48.1	.376	0.8
1980	53	41	35	4	5	1	0	1	2	2	13	1	0	.143	.189	.257	.446	13.6	22.2	.209	1.0
1981	41	9	8	2	3	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	.375	.444	.500	.944	178.9	165.6	.442	0.8
1982	62	13	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	.000	.077	.000	.077	-86.6	-76.7	.058	0.2
1983	24	5	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-127.2	-100.0	.000	0.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1959	3	2	0	2	0	0	0	7	7	4	2	1	5.0	12.60	2.200	3.60	7.86	202.4	30.8	-0.5
1960	13	9	1	5	0	0	0	48	31	31	25	8	50.0	5.58	1.580	4.50	5.64	141.2	71.6	-0.5
1961	36	29	9	17	0	8	1	188	87	82	122	12	200.7	3.90	1.346	5.47	3.46	82.7	107.0	3.0
1962	39	35	18	14	1	16	5	243	94	75	173	23	269.0	3.14	1.182	5.79	3.38	82.6	130.0	5.9
1963	31	27	10	10	1	7	1	195	83	38	105	24	178.3	4.19	1.307	5.30	3.82	103.9	87.9	0.6
1964	36	34	17	11	1	13	0	231	87	60	171	23	243.0	3.22	1.198	6.33	3.13	86.3	112.8	4.2
1965	45	42	18	11	2	7	2	267	83	63	154	25	264.3	2.83	1.248	5.24	3.23	90.8	126.0	5.7
1966	41	41	25	13	0	19	3	271	93	55	205	29	304.7	2.75	1.070	6.06	2.90	80.9	130.4	6.7
1967	42	38	16	13	0	13	2	269	89	42	211	21	263.3	3.04	1.181	7.21	2.43	70.9	112.9	4.3
1968	30	29	14	12	0	9	2	192	68	40	130	16	208.0	2.94	1.115	5.63	2.59	84.0	104.9	2.5
1969	40	32	14	13	1	10	0	252	94	75	139	23	242.3	3.49	1.349	5.16	3.49	95.5	104.6	3.6
1970	45	34	14	10	0	4	1	244	91	58	120	26	230.3	3.56	1.311	4.69	3.65	97.5	105.3	3.1
1971	39	38	13	14	0	15	4	275	96	47	137	16	260.3	3.32	1.237	4.74	2.72	77.3	105.8	3.2
1972	15	15	10	2	0	5	0	94	26	20	64	6	113.3	2.06	1.006	5.08	2.36	73.7	155.0	3.5
1973	36	35	15	13	0	10	3	250	109	43	109	30	224.3	4.37	1.306	4.37	3.98	101.0	90.0	1.1
1974	42	39	21	13	0	15	3	263	90	63	142	18	277.3	2.92	1.175	4.61	3.14	84.6	126.9	5.3
1975	43	41	20	14	0	12	1	321	105	77	142	20	303.7	3.11	1.311	4.21	3.33	86.2	124.1	5.7
1976	38	35	12	14	0	7	1	241	88	32	83	21	227.7	3.48	1.199	3.28	3.54	99.5	102.2	2.7
1977	35	27	6	11	0	2	0	211	96	40	55	20	160.3	5.39	1.565	3.09	4.45	111.5	74.1	-0.9
1978	26	24	8	5	0	2	1	150	64	32	48	9	140.3	4.10	1.297	3.08	3.56	99.7	87.1	0.4
1979	43	2	3	3	2	0	0	73	29	19	25	5	66.7	3.92	1.380	3.38	3.93	96.9	104.1	0.8
1980	53	14	8	8	4	6	1	148	59	37	37	6	134.7	3.94	1.374	2.47	3.60	96.7	94.4	1.0
1981	41	1	6	6	4	0	0	60	20	17	8	2	53.0	3.40	1.453	1.36	3.82	107.0	105.1	0.8
1982	62	2	5	3	2	0	0	79	34	23	35	6	75.0	4.08	1.360	4.20	3.85	106.2	89.0	0.2
1983	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	48	15	10	19	5	34.7	3.89	1.673	4.93	4.32	119.1	93.1	0.2

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

1,004

1,362

1,251

117

232

RBI

106

367

.1855

OBP

.2274

SLG

.2670

OPS

.4944

Pitching

G (P)

898

29th-most career G (P)

625

17th-most career GS

283

31st-most career W

237

16th-most career L

180

172nd-most career CG

SHO

104th-most career SHO

4,530

25th-most career IP

SO (P)

2,461

45th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,083

82nd-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.453

406th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2588

375th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

4.89

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	BB	TB
1969-08-12	MIN @ NYY Gameday	3	1	2	1	1	2	0	6
1976-06-06	PHI @ SF Gameday	4	0	3	2	0	3	0	5
1977-08-11	WSH @ PHI Gameday	3	1	3	2	0	1	0	5
1967-07-09	MIN @ CWS Gameday	4	2	2	0	1	2	0	5
1962-06-19	MIN @ CWS Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	1	1	5

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1967-09-26	LAA @ MIN Gameday	9.0	5	3	2	2	13	0
1962-08-01	MIN @ BAL Gameday	11.0	9	1	1	4	12	0
1967-09-18	MIN @ ATH Gameday	10.0	6	0	0	0	12	0
1968-08-16	BAL @ MIN Gameday	9.0	9	2	2	0	12	0
1964-04-26	DET @ MIN Gameday	11.0	7	2	2	3	11	1

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, 2022 (Veterans - Golden Age Era)

16× Gold Glove3× 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.