As we continue to roll through this “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings” series, the majority of the signings we cover are positive, or at least have something positive to add to Yankees history. “Notable,” however, is not an inherently positive descriptor, made clear by our inclusion of Ed Whitson in this series.
A right-handed starting pitcher, Whitson played for 15 seasons in The Show, and was very good at times. Those times, however, came mostly away from his days in pinstripes. It was an ultimately
brief and tumultuous tenure with the Yankees for Whitson, as he played some of his worst baseball in New York, and made it through less than a third of his contract with the team. Between boos, brawls, and virtual banishments from Yankee Stadium, Whitson’s signing with the Yanks was notable for all the wrong reasons — and fans of a certain generation will never forget his name.
Ed Whitson
Signing Date: December 27, 1984
Contract: Five years, $4.5 million
A Pirates prep pick out of Tennessee in the 1974 MLB Draft, Whitson made debuted just three years later with Pittsburgh, at the age of 22. He pitched quite well in the ‘78 season with the Buccos, working exclusively as a reliever over 74 innings, managing a 3.28 ERA. But, after a rough start to the 1979 campaign, Whitson was sent off to the Giants, where they would work the righty in as a starter. After a solid showing for the remainder of that year, Whitson broke out in San Francisco for the 1980 season. That year, he pitched over 200 innings in 34 starts, to the tune of a 3.10 ERA, held in check by a league-leading ability to keep the ball in the ballpark (Candlestick Park certainly didn’t hurt in that regard). He earned his first and only All-Star selection that season.
Whitson took a step back the following year, before being shipped off the Cleveland for the 1982 campaign. There, the righty found his footing once again, primarily as a reliever across 40 appearances (nine starts). Likely getting used to the unstable nature of a baseball career, Whitson was traded once again, this time to the Padres for the ‘83 campaign. In those two combined seasons, Whitson was an effective starter, managing a sub-4 ERA in 333.1 total innings, pitching particularly well in ‘84 as a starter. That year, Whitson started several pivotal games in San Diego’s pennant run, netting a win in NLCS Game 3 over the Cubs with the Padres staring down a possible sweep.
That offseason, Whitson hit the open market as a free agent. He was coming off of one of his better seasons, and his best in terms of wins and losses, which meant a lot more to teams at the time. He was entering his age-30 season, and clearly was a viable big league starter, so a club was bound to sign him to a reasonable contract. That club would end up being the Yankees, who inked the righty to a five-year deal, at just under $1 million per year.
Whitson had himself a spot in the back of the Yankees rotation for the 1985 campaign, but even the minimal pressure of his spot was at times difficult for the hurler to manage. He allowed 13 runs to score in eight innings over his first two starts with the Yanks, and that was only the beginning of the trouble.
Whitson got off to a very slow start on the whole that year, holding an unsightly 6.23 ERA over his first 11 starts, a hole that would be tough to dig himself out of. He did have an excellent stretch from June through the All-Star break that saw him throw two shutouts and pitch into the 10th (!) on June 11th against Toronto, but it was proved to just be the eye of the storm. He lasted just four outs during his first start after the break and it was unfortunately back to business as usual. During home games, Whitson’s poor performance on the mound began to lead to sour interactions with fans. He was booed, heckled, and even began to receive hate mail from Yankees fans. This had a clear effect on Whitson, so much so that he became hesitant to bring his wife to the Stadium for games. It was unfair treatment, of course, but his time in New York was not going well, and it was only going to get worse.
In September of that year, Whitson was involved in a nasty incident in a Baltimore hotel where the Yankees were staying. There, Whitson become engaged with manager Billy Martin—no stranger to heated arguments and controversy—in what was described as a brawl which went from the bar, to the hotel lobby, and into the street. It was likely an explosive back-and-forth over Whitson being scratched from a start, and an incident that ended with Martin suffering a broken arm. If it wasn’t before, it was clear that this contract was not going to work out.
For the start of the 1986 season, if things weren’t bad enough, Whitson was informed that he would only make starts in away games, due in part to the treatment he was receiving at Yankee Stadium. It was likely a humiliating situation for the veteran pitcher, and one that clearly wore on him (the policy didn’t last and he was still pitching in relief at home anyway). The ‘86 campaign was probably the worst season of his big league career with a ghastly 7.54 ERA in 37 IP for New York, and between that, his rotten treatment from fans, and severe off-the-field issues, his time in the Bronx was just about done.
In July of that year, only a year-and-a-half after signing a five-year nine-figure contract with the Yankees, he was shipped back to the Padres for a minimal return: righty reliever Tim Stoddard. It was honestly better than the Yanks could have hoped, as Stoddard gave them 142 innings of 3.61 ERA ball out of the ‘pen from midseason ‘86 to the end of ‘87 before fading in his mid-thirties.
Oddly enough, Whitson actually had some of his best baseball ahead of him following the move back to the West Coast. The starter would pitch in five more seasons, all for the Padres, some of which would be quite good. For four consecutive seasons, from 1987-90, Whitson topped 200 innings, and pitched some of his best ball in the final two years of that stretch. The righty maintained an ERA well under 3.00 in 227 and 228 innings, respectively, racking up 6.5 and then a Senior Circuit-best 7.0 bWAR in his high-volume role with San Diego.
Given the struggles Whitson endured with the Yankees, it stands at least as a testament to his resilience that he was able to reach his peak afterwards, particularly in his mid-30s after over a decade of pitching. Did he go from an NL-leading bWAR to completely toast within 12 months? Sure, but to even get back to the high level in the first place was no small feat.
All things considered, Ed Whitson had a nice MLB career. He pitched 2,240 innings, won 126 games, made an All-Star team, and racked up over 20 WAR over the course of his career — more than most players can say for themselves. What Whitson can not say, however, is that his time with the Yankees was a success. For reasons not entirely under his control, Whitson’s contract was certainly memorable, but not for the reasons he likely would have hoped.
See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.
