Tommy John

HandednessBats Right · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 3 in · 180 lb

BornMay 22, 1943 · Terre Haute, IN, USA

MLB debutSeptember 6, 1963

Final gameMay 25, 1989

Seasons26 (1963–1989)

Cleveland Indians 1963–1964; Chicago White Sox 1965–1971; Los Angeles Dodgers 1972–1974; Los Angeles Dodgers 1976–1978; New York Yankees 1979–1981; California Angels 1982; New York Yankees 1982; California Angels 1983–1985; Oakland Athletics 1985; New York Yankees 1986–1989

Percentile snapshot

1988 season — qualified pitchers

71.1

44.4

14.4

77.8

SHO

221

22.2

35.6

82.2

6.7

85.6

176.3

14.4

ERA

4.49

5.6

WHIP

1.514

K/9

4.13

21.1

FIP

3.60

47.8

FIP-

91.0

67.8

ERA+

88.0

12.2

sWAR

0.6

11.1

of 91 qualified 1988 pitchers (min 161 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

110.6

72.8

sWAR

66.6

99.6

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
1963	6	6	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	-128.8	-100.0	.000	0.5
1964	25	27	24	3	5	0	0	1	0	7	.208	.208	.208	.417	4.1	17.0	.190	0.6
1965	39	68	59	4	10	1	1	2	3	22	.169	.210	.237	.447	27.5	31.8	.209	2.3
1966	34	76	69	6	10	1	2	8	3	21	.145	.181	.246	.427	20.5	26.4	.195	3.9
1967	31	58	51	0	8	0	0	2	1	12	.157	.170	.157	.327	-12.7	-0.3	.154	3.1
1968	25	67	62	3	12	1	1	9	0	15	.194	.194	.258	.452	21.0	35.8	.207	4.4
1969	33	88	79	6	9	2	0	1	7	27	.114	.184	.139	.323	-20.2	-10.6	.166	3.8
1970	38	96	84	4	17	1	0	5	2	17	.202	.230	.214	.444	11.6	21.1	.211	4.7
1971	38	81	69	3	10	0	0	2	3	14	.145	.181	.145	.325	-22.0	-7.6	.161	2.0
1972	29	70	63	3	10	0	0	2	0	10	.159	.159	.159	.317	-23.8	-7.8	.148	2.8
1973	36	85	74	3	15	1	0	7	4	17	.203	.244	.216	.460	30.9	32.3	.223	3.4
1974	22	62	51	0	6	2	0	2	2	10	.118	.151	.157	.308	-19.4	-11.2	.151	2.9
1976	31	76	64	3	7	1	0	3	2	10	.109	.136	.125	.261	-35.9	-23.9	.129	2.6
1977	31	89	79	3	14	1	1	4	3	14	.177	.205	.228	.433	10.5	17.6	.200	4.9
1978	33	81	66	2	8	2	0	6	3	13	.121	.159	.152	.311	-22.0	-11.8	.153	2.6
1979	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.3
1980	36	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.2
1981	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3.0
1982	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3.0
1983	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.5
1984	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.6
1985	23	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.6
1986	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.6
1987	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.6
1988	35	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.6
1989	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.8

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1963	6	3	0	2	0	0	0	23	5	6	9	1	20.3	2.21	1.426	3.98	3.10	85.7	163.4	0.5
1964	25	14	2	9	0	2	1	97	41	35	65	10	94.3	3.91	1.399	6.20	3.57	98.9	92.3	0.6
1965	39	27	14	7	3	6	1	162	63	58	126	12	183.7	3.09	1.198	6.17	2.86	88.7	104.3	2.3
1966	34	33	14	11	0	10	5	195	65	57	138	13	223.0	2.62	1.130	5.57	2.82	88.4	121.5	3.9
1967	31	29	10	13	0	9	6	143	49	47	110	12	178.3	2.47	1.065	5.55	2.94	95.3	124.6	3.1
1968	25	25	10	5	0	5	1	135	39	49	117	10	177.3	1.98	1.038	5.94	2.67	88.9	151.7	4.4
1969	33	33	9	11	0	6	2	230	84	90	128	16	232.3	3.25	1.377	4.96	3.33	87.0	117.7	3.8
1970	37	37	12	17	0	10	3	253	98	101	138	19	269.3	3.27	1.314	4.61	3.55	91.4	118.4	4.7
1971	38	35	13	16	0	10	3	244	92	58	131	17	229.3	3.61	1.317	5.14	3.00	84.6	98.3	2.0
1972	29	29	11	5	0	4	1	172	60	40	117	14	186.7	2.89	1.136	5.64	2.94	87.7	115.8	2.8
1973	36	31	16	7	0	4	2	202	75	50	116	16	218.0	3.10	1.156	4.79	3.18	91.4	112.4	3.4
1974	22	22	13	3	0	5	3	133	44	42	78	4	153.0	2.59	1.144	4.59	2.75	79.8	133.1	2.9
1976	31	31	10	10	0	6	2	207	71	61	91	7	207.0	3.09	1.295	3.96	3.09	91.2	109.8	2.6
1977	31	31	20	7	0	11	3	225	68	50	123	12	220.3	2.78	1.248	5.02	3.05	79.5	138.0	4.9
1978	33	30	17	10	1	7	0	230	78	53	124	11	213.0	3.30	1.329	5.24	2.95	83.4	107.2	2.6
1979	37	36	21	9	0	17	3	268	91	65	111	9	276.3	2.96	1.205	3.62	3.14	76.3	138.7	6.3
1980	36	36	22	9	0	16	6	270	101	56	78	13	265.3	3.43	1.229	2.65	3.51	89.1	115.0	4.2
1981	20	20	9	8	0	7	0	135	41	39	50	10	140.3	2.63	1.240	3.21	3.65	101.8	136.4	3.0
1982	37	33	14	12	0	10	2	239	91	39	68	15	221.7	3.69	1.254	2.76	3.52	87.9	108.5	3.0
1983	34	34	11	13	0	9	0	287	113	49	65	20	234.7	4.33	1.432	2.49	4.03	99.9	93.1	1.5
1984	32	29	7	13	0	4	1	223	91	56	47	15	181.3	4.52	1.539	2.33	4.30	108.3	87.8	0.6
1985	23	17	4	10	0	0	0	117	53	28	25	9	86.3	5.53	1.680	2.61	4.56	114.2	72.4	-0.6
1986	13	10	5	3	0	1	0	73	23	15	28	8	70.7	2.93	1.245	3.57	4.19	101.9	140.5	1.6
1987	33	33	13	6	0	3	1	212	84	47	63	12	187.7	4.03	1.380	3.02	3.88	87.9	109.6	2.6
1988	35	32	9	8	0	0	0	221	88	46	81	11	176.3	4.49	1.514	4.13	3.60	91.0	88.0	0.6
1989	10	10	2	7	0	0	0	87	41	22	18	6	63.7	5.80	1.712	2.54	4.69	120.9	66.9	-0.8

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

761

1,030

900

141

RBI

211

.1567

OBP

.1868

SLG

.1878

OPS

.3746

Pitching

G (P)

760

75th-most career G (P)

700

8th-most career GS

288

26th-most career W

231

19th-most career L

162

195th-most career CG

SHO

26th-most career SHO

4,710

20th-most career IP

SO (P)

2,245

63rd-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,259

41st-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.342

337th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2827

481st-lowest career WHIP

K/9

4.29

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
1968-05-19	ATH @ CWS Gameday	3	1	1	1	3	4
1965-09-25	CWS @ NYY Gameday	4	1	1	1	1	4
1966-04-25	CWS @ TEX Gameday	2	1	1	1	1	4
1966-08-20	CWS @ CLE Gameday	4	1	1	1	1	4
1977-08-08	CIN @ LAD Gameday	3	1	1	1	1	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1972-08-08	LAD @ CIN Gameday	9.0	3	1	1	4	13	0
1968-05-01	TEX @ CWS Gameday	9.0	5	1	1	1	12	0
1977-08-02	LAD @ NYM Gameday	9.0	8	2	2	2	10	0
1978-05-29	SD @ LAD Gameday	7.1	8	5	5	3	10	1
1967-06-13	CWS @ TEX Gameday	9.0	3	0	0	1	9	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

4× 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.