Top Blue Jays Player #22: Ernie Whitt
Position: Catcher
Seasons With the
Jays: 12 (1977-1978, 1980-1989)
All-Star Game
Selection: 1985
Stats: Games Played 1218 Batting
Average .253
Base Hits 888 Runs
Scored 424
Home Runs 131 RBIs
518
Doubles
164 Triples 15
Stolen Bases 22 Walks 403
During his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, Ernie Whitt was arguably
the most popular player on the team. He was one of the players taken in the
expansion draft when the team came into existence. As time went on and the
players from the 1977 team left the club, he was referred to as one of the
“original Blue Jays”, along with pitcher Jim Clancy and infielder Garth Iorg.
When Clancy and Iorg retired, Whitt earned the honour of being the last
original Blue Jay.
He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 15th round of
the Amateur Draft in 1972 and played with the Sox for eight games in 1976.
While he only managed four hits in those games, one of them was his first Big
League home run.
After being selected by the Jays in the expansion draft, Whitt got into
23 games with Toronto in 1977, batting .171 with no home runs and six RBIs. He
played even less in 1978—only two games—and never managed a hit. The Blue Jays
manager at the time, Roy Hartsfield, didn’t think much of Whitt’s potential.
Whitt demanded to be traded after Hartsfield told him that he (Whitt) would
never play on the team as long as he (Hartsfield) was the manager.
Hartsfield was fired after the 1979 and Bobby Mattick became the club’s
new skipper. Whitt won the starting catcher’s job for the 1980 season and
played in 106 games, batting .237, hitting six home runs and driving in 34. In
the strike-shortened season of 1981, Whitt only played in 74 games, and had a
batting average of .236 while hitting one home run and adding 16 RBIs.
While never much of an offensive threat, Whitt’s true talent lay in his
defensive play and the ability to handle a pitching staff and the differing
personalities that usually are contained therein. With the arrival of new
manager Bobby Cox in 1982, a platoon system was devised where Whitt split the
catching duties with Buck Martinez, but Whitt still saw most of the action.
In 105 games in 1982, his average improved to .261 and he hit 11 home
runs and had 42 RBIs.
1983 was the breakout season for the Blue Jays’ club as for the first
time, they avoided the basement and even held onto first place into August
before finishing fourth behind Baltimore. Whitt also had his breakout season as
he batted .256, hit 17 home runs and added 56 RBIs in 123 games.
His numbers dipped a bit in 1984 (.238, 15, 46) but he played well
enough in 1985 (.245, 19, 64) to earn his only All-Star Game selection of his
career. He also helped the Blue Jays win the division title for the first time
and did most of the catching as Martinez broke his leg in the middle of the
season.
While the team underachieved in 1986, Whitt still had a decent season
(.268, 15, 56), but 1987 was the best offensive output of his career, with
career highs in batting average (.269), home runs (19) and RBIs (75).
But his numbers started to decline in 1988 and even though he helped
lead the team to another division title in 1989, Whitt was already grooming his
replacement, Pat Borders, who would be the mainstay behind the plate for the
next half-dozen seasons.
After the 1989 season, Whitt was released and signed by the Atlanta
Braves as a backup catcher and only appeared in 67 games in the 1990 season.
Before the start of the 1991 season, he signed with the Baltimore Orioles, but
after struggling at the plate in his 35 games, the O’s released him in July.
Since his retirement, Whitt has gained notoriety as the manager of the
Canadian National Baseball Team in such tournaments as the World Baseball
Classic, the Olympics and the Pan-Am Games, winning gold medals in the Pan-Am
event in 2011 and 2015. From 2005 to 2008, he also served with the Blue Jays as
a bench coach and their first base coach.
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