Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Notable Players Who Had Short Stints

Luis Tiant

Luis Tiant is one of the best pitchers in Boston Red Sox history. Though best known for his time in Boston, Tiant got his start with the Clevalnd Indians. From his rookie campaign in 1964 up through 1978, Tiant was a very effective pitcher and a top 15 pitcher in this time span.

Through 3067.1 innings, Tiant pitched to the tune of a 3.16 ERA, 3.45 FIP and 1.18 WHIP. Tiant, who threw a variety of pitches including a knuckleball, ranked 14th in baseball in fWAR (48.3) and 18th in ERA among pitchers with at least 2000 innings pitched.

For the era, these were also pretty decent numbers. Tiant had a 119 ERA+, 84 ERA- and 92 FIP-. It’s arguable that Tiant should be in the Hall of Fame. After all, Hall of Fame pitchers like John Smoltz, Bob Feller, Roy Halladay and Jim Palmer have many similar numbers to Tiant.

After 1978, Tiant left the Boston Red Sox to head to their biggest rival, the New York Yankees. Tiant only pitched two seasons with the Yanks, putting up a 4.31 ERA, 3.80 FIP and 1.30 WHIP across 332 innings of work. While he wasn’t as effective as he was in Boston, he wasn’t awful with New York. Still, it was clear his age was catching up to him as 1980 was his age 39 season.

1981 was the one and only season Tiant pitched with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He only appeared in nine games and tossed 57.1 innings, in part due to 1981 being a strike shortened season, but was a good pitcher in those 57.1 innings He posted a 3.92 ERA, 3.16 FIP and 1.27 WHIP. Tiant was never a big strikeout pitcher and only struck out 13.2% of all batters he faced with the Bucs. However, he only allowed three home runs for a strong 0.5 HR/9.

After 1981, Tiant would pitch just 29.2 innings the following season with the California Angles. Tiant retired after that year, which was his age 41 season.