José Méndez

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 10 in · 152 lb

BornJanuary 2, 1885 · Cardenas, Matanzas, Cuba

MLB debutAugust 24, 1912

Final gameSeptember 21, 1926

Seasons14 (1908–1926)

Cuban Stars of Havana 1908–1910; Stars of Cuba 1910; Cuban Stars of Havana 1911–1912; Chicago American Giants 1918; Detroit Stars 1919; Kansas City Monarchs 1920–1926

Percentile snapshot

1909 season — qualified batters

RBI

.213

OBP

.289

SLG

.267

OPS

.556

wRC+

76.0

OPS+

69.0

wOBA

.275

sWAR

2.5

of 101 qualified 1909 batters (min 40 PA) · 1 stat not shown: every qualified player held the same value, so a percentile there carries no information

1923 season — qualified pitchers

35.6

38.6

57.6

82.6

72.7

54.5

SHO

42.4

138

65.9

71.2

76.5

69.7

138.7

35.6

ERA

3.18

81.1

WHIP

1.212

87.1

K/9

3.89

76.5

FIP

3.55

FIP-

80.8

96.2

ERA+

138.2

93.2

sWAR

3.2

70.5

of 133 qualified 1923 pitchers (min 95 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

sWAR

16.3

91.7

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
1908	19	71	62	9	17	2	1	0	10	5	0	1	.274	.328	.339	.667	98.5	98.7	.331	-0.1
1909	27	89	75	6	16	2	1	0	10	8	0	1	.213	.289	.267	.556	76.0	69.0	.275	2.5
1910	15	63	56	6	12	4	2	0	5	5	0	0	.214	.279	.357	.636	91.1	90.8	.298	-0.1
1911	15	50	42	6	8	1	0	0	3	6	0	3	.190	.306	.214	.520	57.1	41.6	.274	2.7
1912	17	66	60	7	15	3	0	0	6	1	0	0	.250	.262	.300	.562	67.3	65.2	.266	1.7
1918	15	61	52	6	10	3	1	0	4	5	0	0	.192	.263	.288	.552	67.8	61.9	.274	0.5
1919	33	116	101	15	22	2	2	3	12	12	0	3	.218	.301	.366	.667	87.2	87.2	.318	1.3
1920	56	224	180	21	38	6	1	0	14	28	0	5	.211	.324	.256	.579	83.5	73.9	.302	1.4
1921	56	215	178	23	52	9	0	1	16	24	0	17	.292	.376	.360	.736	110.4	108.3	.357	1.1
1922	40	127	104	15	19	5	2	0	8	15	2	9	.183	.298	.269	.567	64.7	53.3	.280	0.0
1923	39	104	88	16	21	8	2	1	15	5	0	1	.239	.280	.409	.689	76.2	77.7	.312	3.2
1924	16	27	24	5	5	2	0	1	3	3	0	0	.208	.296	.417	.713	91.9	94.1	.332	1.0
1925	10	11	9	0	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	.222	.300	.333	.633	75.3	69.9	.296	0.0
1926	7	11	6	3	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	.000	.400	.000	.400	69.5	11.3	.303	1.0

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1908	4	4	1	2	0	3	0	36	18	11	26	0	30.3	5.34	1.549	7.71	2.60	79.8	61.0	-0.1
1909	10	8	6	2	0	7	2	53	9	17	74	1	75.0	1.08	.933	8.88	1.82	59.6	281.9	2.5
1910	8	8	3	4	0	7	0	76	31	7	38	2	67.0	4.16	1.239	5.10	2.66	88.6	72.5	-0.1
1911	11	10	9	0	0	9	3	69	14	16	77	1	87.0	1.45	.977	7.97	2.69	69.5	267.1	2.7
1912	7	6	4	1	0	5	0	44	6	11	23	0	52.7	1.03	1.044	3.93	2.91	89.0	319.1	1.7
1918	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	4	0	2	4	0	9.0	0.00	.667	4.00	2.66	73.1	—	0.5
1919	7	4	3	0	2	3	1	33	12	4	21	1	46.3	2.33	.799	4.08	2.16	65.9	140.8	1.3
1920	9	5	3	1	0	3	0	46	14	9	10	3	47.0	2.68	1.170	1.91	4.16	115.8	133.9	1.4
1921	3	2	1	1	0	0	0	15	8	3	3	1	15.7	4.60	1.149	1.72	4.58	115.7	86.1	1.1
1922	5	1	2	0	0	0	0	34	11	5	14	0	19.3	5.12	2.017	6.52	3.27	69.8	91.4	0.0
1923	24	16	12	4	2	11	1	138	49	30	60	4	138.7	3.18	1.212	3.89	3.55	80.8	138.2	3.2
1924	13	2	6	1	3	0	0	46	17	8	31	0	45.3	3.38	1.191	6.15	2.88	67.2	126.8	1.0
1925	8	3	3	1	0	0	0	28	16	4	12	0	23.0	6.26	1.391	4.70	4.50	85.7	83.8	0.0
1926	7	2	3	1	3	2	0	33	9	1	9	0	31.0	2.61	1.097	2.61	3.09	65.9	179.4	1.0

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

365

1,235

1,037

138

237

RBI

107

122

.2285

OBP

.3127

SLG

.3153

OPS

.6280

Pitching

G (P)

117

SHO

687

SO (P)

402

BB allowed

128

ERA

2.802

WHIP

1.1392

K/9

5.26

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	RBI	BB	TB
1922-06-18	CAG @ KCM Gameday	5	1	3	2	3	0	5
1923-07-01	TOL @ KCM Gameday	3	2	3	2	3	1	5
1920-06-28	CHG @ KCM Gameday	5	1	3	1	2	0	4
1921-08-23	KCM @ COL Gameday	5	3	3	1	1	0	4
1923-06-03	MIL @ KCM Gameday	4	1	2	2	3	0	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1923-09-09	ABC @ KCM Gameday	9.0	8	3	2	3	9	0
1922-07-21	KCM @ PTK Gameday	6.1	14	9	8	1	7	0
1923-07-21	KCM @ SLS Gameday	7.0	6	1	1	2	5	0
1923-09-30	SLS @ KCM Gameday	7.0	13	6	6	2	5	0
1923-04-30	CAG @ KCM Gameday	9.0	11	3	2	1	4	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, 2006 (Negro League)

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