Pinch-Hitting Specialists: A History
In the beginning, there was no such thing as a pinch-hitting specialist. Indeed, in the first few decades of major league baseball, the tactic of pinch-hitting was extremely rare. Standard procedure was, barring injury, that the players who started the game, finished the game. To a great extent this applied even to pitchers. As the 19th century turned to the 20th, pitchers were still completing close to 90% of their starts. Pinch hitting was thus something that simply didn’t happen very often, so the notion of deploying a player on the roster to be a pinch-hitting specialist was unheard of.
But in the first decade of the 1900s, pitching staff usage patterns began to change. Despite the fact that it was an extremely low-scoring period‐vastly lower-scoring than the 1890s—complete-game rates declined. Eighty-six percent of major league starts were completed in 1901, but by 1909 that figure had dropped by nearly a quarter down to 65%. Many new opportunities were being created for pinch hitters to be deployed.
Let’s define a pinch-hitting specialist as a player who appears in at least 40 games in a season and at least 80% of his appearances are strictly as a pinch-hitter and not as a pinch-runner or as a defensive player at any position. By that definition, in 1909, the first pinch-hitting specialist in history appeared. Pittsburgh Pirates manager Fred Clarke deployed Ham Hyatt, a 24-year-old left-handed-batting rookie, in 49 games, and over 40 of those appearances were as a pinch hitter. Hyatt performed very well in the novel pattern; he hit for average (.299) with good power (three doubles and four triples in 67 at-bats), amassing an OPS+ of 137.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+ 1909 Ham Hyatt PIT N 24 L OF6,1B2 49 67 9 20 3 4 0 7 3 ? 299/330/463 137
The Pirates, who hadn’t won the National League pennant since 1903, ran away with it in 1909, winning a franchise-record 110 games. Obviously Hyatt’s contribution to that championship effort was minor, but neither was it insignificant. Clarke kept Hyatt on hand for the next several years and continued to use him as a pinch-hitting specialist to some degree. Others took notice.
The 1910s
Though the rate wasn’t as rapid as it had been in the 1900-09 period, complete games continued to decline in the next decade. Sixty-two percent of starts were completed in 1910, and the rate would be that high only once again in the next 10 years, and it was generally in the range of about 55%. Thus with nearly half of games going to the bullpen, and with left-right platooning going on more than ever, more pinch-hitting was occurring than ever before.
Fred Clarke used Hyatt as a strict pinch-hitting specialist in both 1913 and 1914, but he was no longer the only one. In 1912, the Giants’ John McGraw deployed Moose McCormick, a 31-year-old left-handed-hitting journeyman outfielder, in the pinch-hitting specialist mode. (In 1914, McGraw also used 36-year-old veteran Mike Donlin as an extreme pinch-hitting specialist, though he didn’t quite meet our 40-game minimum: 35 games, entirely as a pinch-hitter, without a single inning played in the field.)
Over the decade, five National Leaguers, three American Leaguers and one Federal Leaguer in the two seasons that league operated appeared as 40-plus-game pinch-hitting specialists. Overall this group hit extremely well, including a sensational year by Hyatt in 1913; his 181 OPS+ remains the highest mark by any pinch-hitting specialist to this day.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1912 Moose McCormick NY N 31 L OF6 1B1 42 39 4 13 4 1 0 8 6 9 333/422/487 145
1913 Doc Miller PHI N 30 L OF12 69 87 9 30 6 0 0 11 6 6 345/400/414 129
1913 Ham Hyatt PIT N 28 L 1B5 OF5 63 81 8 27 6 2 4 16 3 8 333/372/605 181
1913 J. Lelivelt NY,CLE A 27 L OF6 41 51 2 15 2 1 0 11 2 5 294/321/373 102
1914 Ham Hyatt PIT N 29 L 1B7 C1 74 79 2 17 3 1 1 15 7 14 215/295/316 85
1915 Ed Lennox PIT F 29 R 3B3 55 53 1 16 3 1 1 9 7 12 302/383/453 146
1915 Jack Roche STL N 24 R C4 46 39 2 8 0 1 0 6 4 8 205/295/256 68
1917 Bill Rumler STL A 26 R OF9 78 88 7 23 3 4 1 16 8 9 261/323/420 131
1917 Eddie Murphy CHI A 25 L OF9 53 51 9 16 2 1 0 16 5 1 314/386/392 135
1910-19 Average 28 58 63 5 18 3 1 1 12 5 8 290/346/421 127
Six of the nine were left-handed batters. They were 28 years old on average, largely a group of players with little or no experience as major league regulars.
The 1920s
Scoring boomed in this decade, and beleaguered pitchers completed fewer starts than ever: from 57% in 1920, down to 48% by 1929. Yet the incidence of pinch-hitting specialists was actually slightly down from the previous decade.
But there was one new development. For the first time, former stars were now deployed as pinch-hitting specialists in the final phase of their careers: Gavy Cravath, Amos Strunk and Cy Williams. Cravath’s deployment was interesting in that as a playing manager for the Phillies in 1920, he was the first manager to use himself as a pinch-hitting specialist.
John McGraw was the one manager in the decade who deployed more than one pinch-hitting specialist, using former home run champ Dave Robertson in the role in 1922 and rookie Pat Crawford in 1929.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1920 Gavy Cravath PHI N 39 R OF5 46 45 2 13 5 0 1 11 9 12 289/407/467 145
1922 Dave Robertson NY N 32 L OF8 42 47 5 13 2 0 1 3 3 7 277/320/383 80
1923 Amos Strunk CHI A 34 L OF5 1B2 54 54 7 17 0 0 0 8 8 5 315/403/315 91
1926 Pat McNulty CLE A 27 L OF9 48 56 3 14 2 1 0 6 5 9 250/311/321 65
1928 Guy Sturdy STL A 28 L 1B1 54 45 3 10 1 0 1 8 8 4 222/340/311 70
1929 Cy Williams PHI N 41 L OF11 66 65 11 19 2 0 5 21 22 9 292/471/554 146
1929 Pat Crawford NY N 27 L 1B7 3B1 65 57 13 17 3 0 3 24 11 5 298/412/509 127
1920-29 Average 33 54 53 6 15 2 0 2 12 9 7 279/389/415 107
Aside from Cravath, all of the pinch-hitting specialists of the 1920s were left-handed batters. The few managers who made use of this role were pretty uniformly angling for the platoon advantage against what were primarily right-handed pitching staffs.
The 1930s
Scoring levels, as we explored here, were quite different between the two leagues in this decade. Nevertheless, complete game rates were quite consistent between the leagues, and they remained rather constant across the decade in the middle-40 percent range.
But despite the fact that more pitchers were removed from games than ever before, teams were deploying pinch-hitting specialists slightly less frequently than in the 1920s, the second straight decade of slight decline in the practice. Moreover, just two cases occurred following 1933. It appeared that the pinch-hitting specialist might be headed toward extinction.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1931 Tom Winsett BOS A 21 L OF8 64 76 6 15 1 0 1 7 4 21 197/247/250 34
1931 Sam Leslie NY N 25 L 1B6 53 53 11 16 4 0 3 5 1 2 302/315/547 129
1932 Sam Leslie NY N 26 L 1B2 77 75 5 22 4 0 1 15 2 5 293/329/387 93
1933 Harry McCurdy PHI N 33 L C2 73 54 9 15 1 0 2 12 16 6 278/451/407 134
1936 Sid Gautreaux BKN N 24 B C15 75 71 8 19 3 0 0 16 9 7 268/358/310 80
1938 Lee Gamble CIN N 28 L OF9 53 75 13 24 3 1 0 5 0 6 320/320/387 96
1930-39 Average 26 66 67 9 19 3 0 1 10 5 8 275/328/371 91
This isn’t exactly an all-star lineup. Unlike the 1920s, none of the career-closing sluggers of the 1930s were deployed as pinch-hitting specialists. Though it would have been interesting to see a great professional hitter such as Harry Heilmann, Lefty O’Doul, Rogers Hornsby (well, actually he was, but very briefly), or, for that matter, Babe Ruth, deployed as a pure pinch-hitting specialist at the end of his career, for whatever reason it didn’t happen in the 1930s. It was a decade in which platooning greatly declined as well, as it was generally an era in which specialized roles and active in-game management recessed.
But John McGraw went to the end as a fancier of the pinch-hitting specialist, deploying the rookie Sam Leslie that way in 1931, and upon his health-dictated retirement in 1932, handing Leslie off to successor Bill Terry.
The 1940s
The pinch-hitting specialist forged a bit of a comeback. The decade’s decline in complete games was slight: 44% in 1940 to 39% in 1949, and the resurgence of the pinch-hitting specialist was similarly subtle but certain. In the decade’s early years, a couple of aging superstars, Charlie Gehringer and Joe Cronin (managing himself), were deployed this way for the first time in a long while. Cronin indeed had an utterly brilliant season in the role in 1943. And in the latter years of the decade, several younger talents were so disposed.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1940 John McCarthy NY N 30 L 1B6 51 67 6 16 4 0 0 5 2 8 239/261/299 53
1940 Odell Hale CLE A 31 R 3B3 48 50 3 11 3 1 0 6 5 7 220/291/320 60
1942 C. Gehringer DET A 39 L 2B3 45 45 6 12 0 0 1 7 7 4 267/365/333 91
1943 Joe Cronin BOS A 36 R 3B10 59 77 8 24 4 0 5 29 11 4 312/398/558 176
1945 C. Hostetler DET A 41 L OF8 42 44 3 7 3 0 0 2 7 8 159/275/227 43
1945 Joe Schultz STL A 26 L C4 41 44 1 13 2 0 0 8 3 1 295/340/341 94
1947 Joe Schultz STL A 28 L 43 38 3 7 0 0 1 1 4 5 184/262/263 45
1948 J. McCarthy NY N 38 L 1B6 56 57 6 15 0 1 2 12 3 2 263/300/404 88
1948 Hal Peck CLE A 31 L OF9 45 63 12 18 3 0 0 8 4 8 286/328/333 78
1948 Joe Schultz STL A 29 L 43 37 0 7 0 0 0 9 6 3 189/302/189 31
1949 Smoky Burgess CHI N 22 L C8 46 56 4 15 0 0 1 12 4 4 268/317/321 74
1940-49 Average 32 47 53 5 13 2 0 1 9 5 5 251/317/343 82
Perhaps the most interesting were a couple of erstwhile catchers. Joe Schultz (yes, that Joe Schultz, the 1969 Seattle Pilots manager, of pound-that-Budweiser fame), had essentially an entire major league career as a pinch-hitting specialist. (His best year, 1946, when he hit .386 in 57 at-bats, barely misses the conditions to be included here.) And Smoky Burgess was a 22-year-old rookie pinch-hitting specialist, with a long and remarkable career ahead of him.
Nine of the 11 1940s pinch-hitting specialists batted left-handed; the heavy reliance on platoon advantage in this role continued. The overall performance of these specialists wasn’t as impressive of those of earlier decades, as indicated by the weighted average OPS+ of 82. Bear in mind, however, that while an OPS+ of 82 is significantly less than league-wide average, it remains vastly better than the offensive performance of the batters for whom these specialists were generally pinch hitting. Weak-hitting middle infielders and catchers often have OPS+ figures in the range of around 60, and pitchers are typically quite a bit below that, often below zero.
The 1950s
Otherwise known as “the blossoming.”
Complete game rates dropped dramatically, more than any decade since the 1900s, from 40% in 1950 to 30% in 1959, a neat, clean one-quarter. Accompanied by a huge resurgence in platooning practices, the opportunity for pinch-hitting specialists was better than ever before, and managers met it like never before.
Twenty-two of the 24 were left-handed batters.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1950 Charlie Keller DET A 33 L OF6 50 51 7 16 1 3 2 16 13 6 314/453/569 157
1951 Charlie Keller DET A 34 L OF8 54 62 6 16 2 0 3 21 11 12 258/370/435 117
1953 Johnny Mize NY A 40 L 1B15 81 104 6 26 3 0 4 27 12 17 250/339/394 100
1953 Pat Mullin DET A 35 L OF14 79 97 11 26 1 0 4 17 14 15 268/360/402 106
1953 Tom Hamilton PHI A 27 L 1B7 OF2 58 56 8 11 2 0 0 5 7 11 196/286/232 39
1953 George Crowe MIL N 32 L 1B9 47 42 6 12 2 0 2 6 2 7 286/333/476 113
1954 Joe Frazier STL N 31 L OF11 1B1 81 88 8 26 5 2 3 18 13 17 295/388/500 129
1954 Peanuts Lowrey STL N 36 R OF12 74 61 6 7 1 2 0 5 9 9 115/222/197 10
1954 Bill Taylor NY N 24 L OF9 55 65 4 12 1 0 2 10 3 15 185/239/292 38
1954 Dale Mitchell CLE A 32 L OF6 1B1 53 60 6 17 1 0 1 6 9 1 283/377/350 99
1955 Bill Taylor NY N 25 L OF2 65 64 9 17 4 0 4 12 1 16 266/273/516 104
1955 Dale Mitchell CLE A 33 L 1B8 OF3 61 58 4 15 2 1 0 10 4 3 259/302/328 67
1956 Chuck Tanner MIL N 26 L OF8 60 63 6 15 2 0 1 4 10 10 238/342/317 84
1956 D. Mitchell CLE,BKN 34 L OF3 57 54 5 11 1 0 0 7 7 5 204/295/222 38
1956 Ron Northey CHI A 36 L OF4 53 48 4 17 2 0 3 23 8 1 354/417/583 161
1957 R. Northey CHI-A,PHI 37 L 73 53 1 12 1 0 1 12 17 11 226/408/302 97
1957 Bob Hale BAL A 23 L 1B5 42 44 2 11 0 0 0 7 2 2 250/265/250 46
1958 Bob Speake SF N 27 L OF10 66 71 9 15 3 0 3 10 13 15 211/333/380 91
1959 George Crowe STL N 38 L 1B14 77 103 14 31 6 0 8 29 5 12 301/330/592 134
1959 Mickey Vernon MIL N 41 L 1B10 OF4 74 91 8 20 4 0 3 14 7 20 220/283/363 77
1959 Dusty Rhodes SF N 32 L 54 48 1 9 2 0 0 7 5 9 188/259/229 33
1959 Johnny Powers CIN N 29 L OF5 43 43 8 11 2 1 2 4 3 13 256/319/488 109
1959 Harry Bright PIT N 29 R OF43B32B1 40 48 4 12 1 0 3 8 5 10 250/321/458 106
1959 Bob Hale BAL A 25 L 1B8 40 54 2 10 3 0 0 7 2 6 185/214/241 26
1950-59 Average 32 60 64 6 16 2 0 2 12 8 10 245/326/387 90
A long list of interesting stories here. Keller, Mize and Vernon were former stars, going not quietly into the darkness. Crowe was a formidable enough hitter to be a pinch-hitting specialist both before and after his major league regular phase; undoubtedly he would have been a long-time major league star but for Jim Crow.
Dale Mitchell was a good hitter for several years before becoming a pinch-hitting specialist. What’s notable about him in this regard is not just that he was pinch-hitting when called out on strikes to end Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game in his next-to-last professional at-bat, and not just that the irony of that was that Mitchell had spent his career avoiding the strikeout to an astounding degree, but that by the time that at-bat occurred, Mitchell had been a miserable on-base hitter for two full seasons. Among the pinch hitters Dodgers manager Walt Alston might have called upon to attempt to break up a perfect game at the last extremity—that is, get on base—Mitchell was a questionable choice.
Northey had never been a particular star, but he was an excellent platoon hitter for quite a while before disappearing into minor league oblivion for no apparent reason. He then impressively reappeared in his mid-30s as a pinch-hitting specialist with the White Sox; Northey’s 1956 performance in that role at age 36 was among the very best ever recorded.
The 1960s
Scoring declined, and this had an effect of slowing the decline in the percentage of complete games, which stabilized in the mid-to-high 20s. Still, factoring in expansion, the frequency of deployment of pinch-hitting specialists actually declined a bit from the peak of the 1950s, though it was still higher than any time prior to that.
Every pinch-hitting specialist of the 1960s batted left-handed, with the exception of the line-drive-hitting Bob Johnson in 1969.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1960 E. Valo NY A,WAS A 39 L OF8 84 69 7 18 3 0 0 16 19 5 261/413/304 99
1960 George Crowe STL N 39 L 1B5 73 72 5 17 3 0 4 13 5 16 236/278/444 88
1960 Bob Hale CLE A 26 L 1B5 70 70 2 21 7 0 0 12 3 6 300/312/400 94
1960 Earl Torgeson CHI A 36 L 1B10 68 57 12 15 2 0 2 9 21 8 263/462/404 138
1960 Sandy Amoros DET A 30 L OF10 65 67 7 10 0 0 1 7 12 10 149/275/194 28
1961 E. Valo MIN A,PHI N 40 L OF2 83 75 4 13 4 0 1 12 11 9 173/295/267 50
1961 Bob Hale CLE A 27 L 42 36 0 6 0 0 0 6 1 7 167/200/167 1
1962 Bob Will CHI N 30 L OF9 87 92 6 22 3 0 2 15 13 22 239/327/337 76
1963 V. Wertz DET A,MIN A 38 L 1B6 41 49 3 6 0 0 3 7 6 6 122/218/306 44
1965 Smoky Burgess CHI A 38 L C5 80 77 2 22 4 0 2 24 11 7 286/371/416 130
1965 Al Luplow CLE A 26 L OF6 53 45 3 6 2 0 1 4 3 14 133/188/244 22
1966 Smoky Burgess CHI A 39 L C2 79 67 0 21 5 0 0 15 11 8 313/412/388 140
1966 Jerry Lynch PIT N 35 L OF4 64 56 5 12 1 0 1 6 4 10 214/267/286 54
1966 Bob Skinner STL N 34 L 49 45 2 7 1 0 1 5 2 17 156/208/244 25
1966 W. Covington ChN,LAN 34 L OF3 46 44 1 5 0 1 1 6 7 7 114/264/227 42
1967 Smoky Burgess CHI A 40 L 77 60 2 8 1 0 2 11 14 8 133/303/250 68
1967 Doug Clemens PHI N 26 L OF10 69 73 2 13 5 0 0 4 8 15 178/262/247 82
1967 C. Lau BAL A,ATL N 34 L 63 53 3 10 2 0 1 8 6 11 189/267/283 59
1967 Manny Jiminez PIT N 28 L OF6 50 56 3 14 2 0 2 10 1 4 250/276/393 89
1968 Manny Jiminez PIT N 29 L OF5 66 66 7 20 1 1 1 11 6 15 303/403/394 142
1969 Fred Whitfield CIN N 31 L 1B14 74 74 2 11 0 0 1 8 18 27 149/315/189 42
1969 Bob Johnson OAK A 33 R 3B7 2B2 51 67 5 23 1 0 1 9 3 4 343/375/403 122
1960-69 Average 33 65 62 4 14 2 0 1 10 8 11 219/312/315 79
No major former stars were represented in this crew, but it’s a long list of really-good-for-a-long-time hitters, many of whom had stood out as platoon hitters: Valo, Torgeson, Wertz, Skinner and Covington.
Jerry Lynch had been an exceptionally good pinch hitter through the late ’50s and early ’60s, but he had never really been a specialist in the role; he was more of a semi-regular who pinch hit a lot. Not until the very end of his career was he really focused as a pinch hitter.
And we meet again our rotund line-drive-machine friend Smoky Burgess, who had come into the majors in the late 1940s as a pinch-hitting specialist and went out in the mid-to-late 1960s in the same role. In the many meantime years, he had been deployed much in the manner of Lynch: a great pinch hitter, but starting quite a lot as well.
The 1970s
With the adoption of the designated hitter rule in the American League in 1973, use of pinch-hitting specialists in that league dramatically declined. A DH is, of course, a full-time pinch-hitting specialist, in some sense. But the crucial distinction is the manner in which the DH rule allows the pinch hitter to remain in the lineup without appearing defensively. With the DH, the often-tricky decision of to pinch hit or not, or exactly when to deploy the weapon of the pinch-hitting specialist, is largely removed from the manager’s set of problems. (This is the primary reason I’ve never preferred the DH; it dumbs down the manager’s challenge.)
Deployment of pinch-hitting specialists in the National League continued apace, as the decline in complete games persisted: from 24% of NL games in 1970 to 19% by 1979. A higher proportion than ever before of pinch-hitting specialists were right-handed batters, but a great deal of that is simply the influence of Manny Mota—see below.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1970 Ramon Webster SD N 27 L 1B15,OF1 95 116 12 30 3 0 2 11 11 12 259/323/336 81
1970 Pete Ward NY A 30 L 1B13 66 77 5 20 2 2 1 18 9 17 260/333/377 100
1970 Charlie Manuel MIN A 26 L OF11 59 64 4 12 0 0 1 7 6 17 188/260/234 37
1970 Hawk Taylor KC A 31 R C3 1B1 57 55 3 9 3 0 0 6 6 16 164/258/218 33
1970 Len Gabrielson LA N 30 L OF2 1B1 43 42 1 8 2 0 0 6 1 15 190/205/238 21
1970 Ed Kranepool NY N 25 L 1B8 43 47 2 8 0 0 0 3 5 2 170/250/170 15
1970 Rich Rollins CLE A 32 R 3B5 42 43 6 10 0 0 2 4 3 5 233/283/372 76
1971 Gomer Hodge CLE A 27 B IF8 80 83 3 17 3 0 1 9 4 19 205/256/277 46
1971 Angel Bravo CIN,SD 28 L OF9 57 63 6 10 2 0 0 6 8 13 159/260/190 34
1971 Al Ferrara SD, CIN 31 R OF7 49 50 2 8 1 0 1 7 8 15 160/288/240 54
1973 Jim Stewart HOU N 34 B IF9 OF3 61 68 6 13 0 0 0 3 9 12 191/295/191 38
1974 Gates Brown DET A 35 L DH13 73 99 7 24 2 0 4 17 10 15 242/312/384 97
1974 Manny Mota LA N 36 R OF3 66 57 5 16 2 0 0 16 5 4 281/328/316 85
1974 Phil Gagliano CIN N 32 R IF4 46 31 2 2 0 0 0 0 15 7 065/370/065 28
1974 Norm Miller ATL N 28 L OF4 42 41 1 7 1 0 1 5 7 9 171/292/268 55
1975 Terry Crowley CIN N 28 L 1B4 OF4 66 71 8 19 6 0 1 11 7 6 268/333/394 100
1975 Manny Mota LA N 37 R OF5 52 49 3 13 1 0 0 10 5 1 265/357/286 84
1975 Leron Lee LA N 27 L OF4 48 43 2 11 4 0 0 2 3 9 256/298/349 83
1975 Gates Brown DET A 36 L 47 35 1 6 2 0 1 3 9 6 171/356/314 88
1976 Glenn Adams SF N 28 L OF6 69 74 2 18 4 0 0 3 1 12 243/253/297 54
1976 Chris Arnold SF N 28 R IF14 60 69 4 15 0 1 0 5 6 16 217/276/246 48
1976 Manny Mota LA N 38 R OF6 50 52 1 15 3 0 0 13 7 5 288/367/346 106
1977 Boog Powell LA N 35 L 1B4 50 41 0 10 0 0 0 5 12 9 244/415/244 83
1977 Manny Mota LA N 39 R OF1 49 38 5 15 1 0 1 4 10 0 395/521/500 176
1979 Mike Easler PIT N 28 L OF4 55 54 8 15 1 1 2 11 8 13 278/371/444 118
1979 Manny Mota LA N 41 R OF1 47 42 1 15 0 0 0 3 3 4 357/400/357 110
1970-79 Average 31 57 58 4 13 2 0 1 7 7 10 230/312/300 71
Gates Brown was the lone American Leaguer still deployed as a pinch-hitting specialist past 1973. Brown had, of course, been famed for his pinch-hitting prowess since the mid-1960s, but the Tigers had always given him at least the occasional start in left field (just to keep his swing sharp for pinch hitting, I suspect). Brown would appear to have been a guy for whom the DH rule was expressly designed, but he had a lackluster year when used as a more or less full-time DH in 1973. (It is the case that The Gator was 34 by then, and shall we say, not getting any slimmer.) So in 1974, the Tigers installed Al Kaline as their regular DH, and in 1975 the DH job was given to Willie Horton. Brown was, for the first time in his career, deployed as a true pinch-hitting specialist, batting for the Tigers’ light–hitting middle infielders in crucial late-inning situations.
Manny Mota was another pinch-hitting legend, deployed by the Dodgers as an extreme pinch-hitting specialist through much of the decade of the 1970s. Unlike the vast majority of these guys, Mota was a right-handed batter, but it didn’t make any difference to Mota who was pitching; he was going to hit a line drive anyway. As a Giants fan, I can attest that in the late innings of a tight game against the Dodgers, the presence of Mota looming in the L.A. dugout was frightening indeed. Mota was constitutionally incapable of doing anything other than smacking a solid line drive in any at-bat against any pitcher in any circumstance. Mota turns 68 years old this month, but I suspect if you go to Mota’s house tonight at 3 AM, yank him out of bed, jam a bat in his hands and have a fully-warmed up Mariano Rivera in the front yard flinging his nastiest cutter, the groggy, barefoot pajama-clad Mota will stumble out there and drill the first wicked offering for a solid line drive. In the dark. (Smash! There goes the neighbor’s living room window.)
Pinch-hitting specialist history was made in two ways in the 1970s. First, in May 1971, Angel Bravo and Al Ferrara were traded for one another, the first and only straight-up mid-season swap of pinch-hitting specialists. Second, the 1975 Dodgers (Mota and Leron Lee), the 1976 Giants (Glenn Adams and Chris Arnold), and the 1977 Dodgers (Mota and Boog Powell) all deployed two 40-plus-game pinch-hitting specialists on the roster simultaneously, the only times that’s ever been done.
The 1980s
The Tony LaRussa-managed 1981 White Sox deployed Bobby Molinaro as a pinch-hitting specialist, the last time any American League team has used one. The tactic became a nearly exclusively National League phenomenon, but with NL complete games dropping to ever-lower levels (from 16% in 1980 to 11% in 1989), National League managers used pinch-hitting specialists at the highest rate ever seen.
Six of the 27 pinch-hitting specialists of the 1980s were right-handed batters, a higher proportion than most previous decades.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1980 Biff Pocoroba ATL N 26 B C10 70 83 7 22 4 0 2 8 11 11 265/347/386 103
1980 Tom Hutton MON N 34 L 1B7OF4P1 62 55 2 12 2 0 0 5 4 10 218/267/255 47
1980 M. Sanguillen PIT N 36 R 1B5 47 48 2 12 3 0 0 2 3 1 250/294/312 69
1980 Charlie Spikes ATL N 29 R OF7 41 36 6 10 1 0 0 2 3 18 278/350/306 83
1981 Mike Cubbage NY N 30 L 3B12 67 80 9 17 2 2 1 4 9 15 212/289/325 76
1981 Bobby Molinaro CHI A 31 L DH4 OF2 47 42 7 11 1 1 1 9 8 1 262/377/405 128
1981 Reggie Smith LA N 36 B 1B2 41 35 5 7 1 0 1 8 7 8 200/318/314 84
1982 Jorge Orta LA N 31 L OF17 86 115 13 25 5 0 2 8 12 13 217/295/313 72
1982 B.Molinaro CHI N,PHI 32 L OF4 84 80 6 17 1 0 1 14 9 6 212/292/262 55
1982 W. Stargell PIT N 42 L 1B8 74 73 6 17 4 0 3 17 10 24 233/318/411 101
1982 Ken Smith ATL N 24 L 1B6 OF3 48 41 6 12 1 0 0 3 6 13 293/383/317 95
1982 G. Barranca CIN N 25 L 2B6 46 51 11 13 1 3 0 2 2 9 255/283/392 86
1983 Rusty Staub NY N 39 L 1B5 OF5 104 115 5 34 6 0 3 28 14 10 296/371/426 122
1983 Terry Crowley MON N 36 L 1B4 50 44 2 8 0 0 0 3 9 4 182/327/182 46
1983 Jose Morales LA N 38 R 1B4 47 53 4 15 3 0 3 8 1 11 283/296/509 121
1984 Rusty Staub NY N 40 L 1B3 78 72 2 19 4 0 1 18 4 9 264/291/361 84
1984 Champ Summers SD N 38 L 1B8 47 54 5 10 3 0 1 12 4 15 185/254/296 55
1985 Rusty Staub NY N 41 L OF1 54 45 2 12 3 0 1 8 10 4 267/400/400 127
1985 Razor Shines MON N 28 B 1B5 P1 47 50 0 6 0 0 0 3 4 9 120/185/120 -10
1987 W. Johnson MON N 30 B 1B9 75 85 7 21 5 0 1 14 7 6 247/298/341 67
1987 Davey Lopes HOU N 42 R OF5 47 43 4 10 2 0 1 6 13 8 233/411/349 108
1987 Gary Matthews CHI N 36 R OF2 44 42 3 11 3 0 0 8 4 11 262/326/333 73
1988 W. Johnson MON N 31 B 1B13 2B1 86 94 7 29 5 1 0 3 12 15 309/387/383 118
1988 Jerry Mumphrey CHI N 35 B OF4 63 66 3 9 2 0 0 9 7 16 136/219/167 11
1988 Harry Spilman SF,HOU 33 L 1B7 47 45 4 7 1 1 1 3 4 9 156/224/289 50
1988 S. Henderson HOU N 35 R OF8 1B1 42 46 4 10 2 0 0 5 7 14 217/321/261 73
1989 Jeff Wetherby ATL N 25 L OF9 52 48 5 10 2 1 1 7 4 6 208/264/354 74
1980-89 Average 33 59 61 5 14 2 0 1 8 7 10 235/314/331 80
Certain managers seemed to have a particular preference for the role. Tommy Lasorda of the Dodgers, even with the amazing Manny Mota finally retired, used Reggie Smith (1981, in over 40 games despite the strike-shortened season), Jorge Orta (1982), and Jose Morales (1983) as pinch-hitting specialists. And the Expos’ Buck Rodgers deployed Razor Shines (despite the fact that Shines performed miserably) and then Wallace Johnson (who did pretty well) in the role.
The best pinch-hitting specialist of this era was clearly Rusty Staub, who capped off his long career with a sequence of very strong performances for the Mets.
The 1990s
Complete-game rates continued to plummet in the National League, from 10% in 1990 to just 5% by 1999. Yet the deployment of pinch-hitting specialists declined dramatically, to a frequency not seen since the 1940s. The explanation is clearly found in the makeup of rosters: across the decade, bullpens grew in size, at the expense of bats on the bench. As we explored in depth previously, the 1990s saw unprecedented use of LOOGYs, closers and other short-stint relief pitching patterns, strategies which soak up roster space, inhibiting the capacity of teams to keep pure pinch-hitters on hand.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
1990 Bill Bathe SF N 29 R C8 52 48 3 11 0 1 3 12 7 12 229/321/458 116
1990 W. Johnson MON N 33 B 1B7 47 49 6 8 1 0 1 5 7 6 163/281/245 49
1991 Eric Bullock MON N 30 L OF9 1B3 73 72 6 16 4 0 1 6 9 13 222/305/319 77
1992 Jeff Grotewold PHI N 26 L C2OF21B1 72 65 7 13 2 0 3 5 9 16 200/307/369 91
1993 Gerald Perry STL N 32 L 1B15 OF1 96 98 21 33 5 0 4 16 18 23 337/440/510 157
1993 F. Cabrera ATL N 26 R 1B12 C2 70 83 8 20 3 0 4 11 8 21 241/308/422 92
1994 Dave Hansen LA N 25 L 3B7 40 44 3 15 3 0 0 5 5 5 341/408/409 121
1995 J. Vander Wal COL N 29 L 1B10 OF10 105 101 15 35 8 1 5 21 16 23 347/432/594 142
1995 Gerald Perry STL N 34 L 1B11 65 79 4 13 4 0 0 5 6 12 165/224/215 17
1996 Andre Dawson FLA N 41 R OF6 42 58 6 16 2 0 2 14 2 13 276/311/414 93
1997 J. Vander Wal COL N 31 L OF9 1B5 76 92 7 16 2 0 1 11 10 33 174/225/228 18
1997 S. Livingstone STL N 31 L 3B2 OF1 42 41 3 7 1 0 0 3 1 10 171/182/195 -1
1990-99 Average 31 65 69 7 17 3 0 2 10 8 16 245/324/378 86
Two specialists on this list produced seasons among the most impressive of all time: Gerald Perry in 1993 and John Vander Wal in 1995 were both brilliant in the role. However, both turned in dreadful performances just a couple of years later, indicating just how difficult the pinch-hitting specialist job is.
The 2000s
Through the first half of this decade, the complete game has continued to edge ever closer to near-full extinction, yet the deployment of pinch-hitting specialists has also declined further. Teams continue to opt for extreme relief pitching specialists over extreme offensive specialists.
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+
2000 Mark Sweeney MIL N 30 L OF3 1B2 71 73 9 16 6 0 1 6 12 18 219/337/342 76
2001 D.T. Cromer CIN N 30 L 1B8 50 57 7 16 3 0 5 12 3 19 281/302/596 125
2002 Tim Raines FLA N 42 B OF14 98 89 9 17 3 0 1 7 22 19 191/351/258 66
2004 Carlos Baerga ARI N 35 B 1B6 79 85 6 20 2 0 2 11 6 12 235/309/329 64
2004 Lenny Harris FLA N 39 L OF14 3B3 79 95 7 20 5 0 1 17 3 8 211/232/295 38
2005 Lenny Harris FLA N 40 L CI3DH2OF2 83 70 5 22 4 0 1 13 7 11 314/385/414 116
2000-05 Average 36 77 78 7 19 4 0 2 11 9 15 237/314/356 76
Jack McKeon of the Florida Marlins has been the only manager in this decade to use more than one pinch-hitting specialist, deploying the veteran Lenny Harris in the mode in both 2004 and 2005. Harris performed terribly in ’04, and excellently in ’05, again illustrating the elusive nature of dependable and predictable performance in this very narrow usage pattern.
What’s to Come?
As we see below, the usage of pinch-hitting specialists is on the wane:
Decade NL PHS/Team AL PHS/Team 1900-09 .013 .000 1910-19 .063 .038 1920-29 .050 .038 1930-39 .063 .013 1940-49 .038 .100 1950-59 .163 .144 1960-69 .112 .120 1970-79 .158 .056 1980-89 .217 .007 1990-99 .088 .000 2000-05 .067 .000
The Designated Hitter pretty thoroughly killed the role in the American League, and from a height of deployment in the 1980s, usage of it in the National League is lower than it’s been in half a century.
The wisdom of deploying a player in this manner has always been questionable. Pinch hitting is an extremely challenging assignment under the best of conditions, and virtually never getting a chance to get more than one at-bat in any game all season long can hardly be seen as the best of conditions. It would seem wise, even if a player is really limited defensively, to give him at least an occasional start, a chance to get three of four at-bats in a single game at least once a week, to keep his timing sharp. The generally modest performance of pinch-hitting specialists over the decades, and the wild fluctuations in performance among even the best of them, are strong indicators of the difficulty of doing well in the role. I would argue that, as a rule of thumb, each player on the bench should be able to potentially contribute in more than one way, and limiting a player to even the chance to contribute in only one way — and the most challenging way at that — doesn’t seem the wisest use of a precious roster spot.
That said, I remain skeptical that the roles that have largely replaced pinch-hitting specialists—LOOGYs and other very short-stint relief pitchers—represent a much better contribution of value. If a roster spot should ideally contribute in more than one way, short-relief specialists are by definition incapable of meeting even that requirement, offering zero offensive capacity, nor any even as a defensive innings-eater. In short, I suspect the replacement of pinch-hitting specialists with short-relief specialists swaps one generally suboptimized roster spot for another.
The type of player who can predictably excel in the pinch-hitting specialist usage pattern—the graybearded Rusty Staub, Manny Mota, or Smoky Burgess—has always been extremely rare. Absent such a precious jewel, it’s doubtful that many of the decisions to deploy players as pinch-hitting specialists have been particularly wise.
Top Twenty OPS+ Pinch-Hitting Specialist Seasons
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+ 1913 Ham Hyatt PIT N 28 L 1B5 OF5 63 81 8 27 6 2 4 16 3 8 333/372/605 181 1943 Joe Cronin BOS A 36 R 3B10 59 77 8 24 4 0 5 29 11 4 312/398/558 176 1977 Manny Mota LA N 39 R OF1 49 38 5 15 1 0 1 4 10 0 395/521/500 176 1956 Ron Northey CHI A 36 L OF4 53 48 4 17 2 0 3 23 8 1 354/417/583 161 1993 Gerald Perry STL N 32 L 1B15 OF1 96 98 21 33 5 0 4 16 18 23 337/440/510 157 1950 Charlie Keller DET A 33 L OF6 50 51 7 16 1 3 2 16 13 6 314/453/569 157 1929 Cy Williams PHI N 41 L OF11 66 65 11 19 2 0 5 21 22 9 292/471/554 146 1915 Ed Lennox PIT F 29 R 3B3 55 53 1 16 3 1 1 9 7 12 302/383/453 146 1912 M. McCormick NY N 31 L OF6 1B1 42 39 4 13 4 1 0 8 6 9 333/422/487 145 1920 Gavy Cravath PHI N 39 R OF5 46 45 2 13 5 0 1 11 9 12 289/407/467 145 1995 J. Vander Wal COL N 29 L 1B10 OF10 105 101 15 35 8 1 5 21 16 23 347/432/594 142 1968 Manny Jiminez PIT N 29 L OF5 66 66 7 20 1 1 1 11 6 15 303/403/394 142 1966 Smoky Burgess CHI A 39 L C2 79 67 0 21 5 0 0 15 11 8 313/412/388 140 1960 Earl Torgeson CHI A 36 L 1B10 68 57 12 15 2 0 2 9 21 8 263/462/404 138 1909 Ham Hyatt PIT N 24 L OF6 1B2 49 67 9 20 3 4 0 7 3 ? 299/329/463 137 1917 Eddie Murphy CHI A 25 L OF9 53 51 9 16 2 1 0 16 5 1 314/386/392 135 1959 George Crowe STL N 38 L 1B14 77 103 14 31 6 0 8 29 5 12 301/330/592 134 1933 Harry McCurdy PHI N 33 L C2 73 54 9 15 1 0 2 12 16 6 278/451/407 134 1917 Bill Rumler STL A 26 R OF9 78 88 7 23 3 4 1 16 8 9 261/323/420 131 1965 Smoky Burgess CHI A 38 L C5 80 77 2 22 4 0 2 24 11 7 286/371/416 130
Bottom Twenty OPS+ Pinch-Hitting Specialist Seasons
Year Player Team Age B G by POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA/OBP/SLG OPS+ 1985 Razor Shines MON N 28 B 1B5 P1 47 50 0 6 0 0 0 3 4 9 120/185/120 -10 1997 S. Livingstone STL N 31 L 3B2 OF1 42 41 3 7 1 0 0 3 1 10 171/182/195 -1 1961 Bob Hale CLE A 27 L 42 36 0 6 0 0 0 6 1 7 167/200/167 1 1954 Peanuts Lowrey STL N 36 R OF12 74 61 6 7 1 2 0 5 9 9 115/222/197 10 1988 Jerry Mumphrey CHI N 35 B OF4 63 66 3 9 2 0 0 9 7 16 136/219/167 11 1970 Ed Kranepool NY N 25 L 1B8 43 47 2 8 0 0 0 3 5 2 170/250/170 15 1995 Gerald Perry STL N 34 L 1B11 65 79 4 13 4 0 0 5 6 12 165/224/215 17 1997 J. Vander Wal COL N 31 L OF9 1B5 76 92 7 16 2 0 1 11 10 33 174/225/228 18 1970 Len Gabrielson LA N 30 L OF2 1B1 43 42 1 8 2 0 0 6 1 15 190/205/238 21 1965 Al Luplow CLE A 26 L OF6 53 45 3 6 2 0 1 4 3 14 133/188/244 22 1966 Bob Skinner STL N 34 L 49 45 2 7 1 0 1 5 2 17 156/208/244 25 1959 Bob Hale BAL A 25 L 1B8 40 54 2 10 3 0 0 7 2 6 185/214/241 26 1960 Sandy Amoros DET A 30 L OF10 65 67 7 10 0 0 1 7 12 10 149/275/194 28 1974 Phil Gagliano CIN N 32 R 2B21B13B1 46 31 2 2 0 0 0 0 15 7 065/370/065 28 1948 Joe Schultz STL A 29 L 43 37 0 7 0 0 0 9 6 3 189/302/189 31 1970 Hawk Taylor KC A 31 R C3 1B1 57 55 3 9 3 0 0 6 6 16 164/258/218 33 1959 Dusty Rhodes SF N 32 L 54 48 1 9 2 0 0 7 5 9 188/259/229 33 1931 Tom Winsett BOS A 21 L OF8 64 76 6 15 1 0 1 7 4 21 197/247/250 34 1971 Angel Bravo CIN,SD 28 L OF9 57 63 6 10 2 0 0 6 8 13 159/260/190 34 1970 Charlie Manuel MIN A 26 L OF11 59 64 4 12 0 0 1 7 6 17 188/260/234 37