Lee Smith

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 5 in · 220 lb

BornDecember 4, 1957 · Jamestown, LA, USA

MLB debutSeptember 1, 1980

Final gameJuly 2, 1997

Seasons18 (1980–1997)

Chicago Cubs 1980–1987; Boston Red Sox 1988–1990; St. Louis Cardinals 1990–1992; New York Yankees 1993; St. Louis Cardinals 1993; Baltimore Orioles 1994; California Angels 1995–1996; Cincinnati Reds 1996; Montreal Expos 1997

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

ERA+

130.8

96.5

sWAR

26.5

95.8

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	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1980	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.5
1981	40	10	9	0	0	0	0	0	7	.000	.000	.000	.000	-137.0	-100.0	.000	0.7
1982	72	18	16	2	1	1	1	1	9	.063	.118	.250	.368	-12.5	-0.8	.169	2.6
1983	66	11	9	0	1	0	0	1	5	.111	.200	.111	.311	-16.1	-13.0	.169	3.7
1984	69	14	13	0	1	0	1	0	8	.077	.077	.077	.154	-84.6	-58.0	.072	1.2
1985	65	7	6	0	0	0	0	1	5	.000	.143	.000	.143	-62.8	-58.4	.107	2.0
1986	66	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	.000	.000	.000	.000	-134.5	-100.0	.000	1.8
1987	63	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-127.9	-100.0	.000	1.9
1988	64	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.1
1989	64	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.1
1990	64	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-125.6	-100.0	.000	2.6
1991	67	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.9
1992	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.0
1993	63	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	-119.6	-100.0	.000	0.6
1994	41	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.0
1995	52	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.1
1996	54	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.9
1997	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1980	18	0	2	0	0	21	7	14	17	0	21.7	2.91	1.615	7.06	3.11	80.5	133.1	0.5
1981	40	1	3	6	1	57	26	31	50	2	66.7	3.51	1.320	6.75	3.00	82.1	104.2	0.7
1982	72	5	2	5	17	105	35	37	99	5	117.0	2.69	1.214	7.62	2.64	71.0	137.9	2.6
1983	66	0	4	10	29	70	19	41	91	5	103.3	1.65	1.074	7.93	2.76	72.8	229.0	3.7
1984	69	0	9	7	33	98	41	35	86	6	101.0	3.65	1.317	7.66	2.90	75.1	105.8	1.2
1985	65	0	7	4	33	87	33	32	112	9	97.7	3.04	1.218	10.32	2.54	64.3	129.7	2.0
1986	66	0	9	9	31	69	31	42	93	7	90.3	3.09	1.229	9.27	3.09	77.4	129.1	1.8
1987	62	0	4	10	36	84	29	32	96	4	83.7	3.12	1.386	10.33	2.34	55.1	136.3	1.9
1988	64	0	4	5	29	72	26	37	96	7	83.7	2.80	1.303	10.33	2.98	72.5	146.8	2.1
1989	64	0	6	1	25	53	28	33	96	6	70.7	3.57	1.217	12.23	2.64	64.7	114.4	1.1
1990	64	0	5	5	31	71	19	29	87	3	83.0	2.06	1.205	9.43	2.23	58.1	186.4	2.6
1991	67	0	6	3	47	70	19	13	67	5	73.0	2.34	1.137	8.26	2.38	64.4	157.9	1.9
1992	70	0	4	9	43	62	26	26	60	4	75.0	3.12	1.173	7.20	2.91	84.9	109.7	1.0
1993	63	0	2	4	46	53	25	14	60	11	58.0	3.88	1.155	9.31	4.10	103.1	103.0	0.6
1994	41	0	1	4	33	34	14	11	42	6	38.3	3.29	1.174	9.86	3.90	78.8	150.6	1.0
1995	52	0	0	5	37	42	19	25	43	3	49.3	3.47	1.358	7.84	3.77	80.4	135.2	1.1
1996	54	0	3	4	2	57	23	26	41	4	55.3	3.74	1.500	6.67	4.05	93.6	117.1	0.9
1997	25	0	0	1	5	28	14	8	15	2	21.7	5.82	1.662	6.23	4.13	98.9	71.9	-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

1,023

RBI

.0469

OBP

.0896

SLG

.0938

OPS

.1834

Pitching

G (P)

1,022

12th-most career G (P)

478

3rd-most career SV

SHO

1,289

SO (P)

1,251

363rd-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

486

ERA

3.029

184th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2557

361st-lowest career WHIP

K/9

8.73

48th-highest career K/9

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	HR	RBI	TB
1982-07-05	CHC @ ATL Gameday	2	1	1	1	1	4
1984-08-07	NYM @ CHC Gameday	1	0	1	0	1	1
1983-08-04	CHC @ STL Gameday	1	0	1	0	0	1
1980-09-01	ATL @ CHC Gameday	0	0	0	0	0	0
1980-09-02	ATL @ CHC Gameday	0	0	0	0	0	0

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1981-10-04	CHC @ PHI Gameday	6.0	3	2	2	4	7	0
1982-06-16	PHI @ CHC Gameday	7.0	7	2	2	1	6	0
1985-04-24	CHC @ PIT Gameday	3.0	2	0	0	0	5	0
1990-04-22	BOS @ MIL Gameday	3.0	1	0	0	2	5	0
1985-06-10	CHC @ WSH Gameday	2.0	2	1	1	1	5	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, 2019 (Veterans - Today's Game Era)

7× 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.