Bio
- Height
- 6' 4"
- Debut
- 1959
- NL MVP
- 1969
- NL Rookie of the Year
- 1959
Bio
- Height
- 6' 4"
- Debut
- 1959
- NL MVP
- 1969
- NL Rookie of the Year
- 1959
Stats
Standard
Career regular season
- GP
- 2,588
- AB
- 8,197
- R
- 1,229
- H
- 2,211
- HR
- 521
- RBI
- 1,555
- SB
- 26
- AVG
- .270
Ranked among MLB players who qualify (AB, R, H, HR, RBI, SB: 40+ games; AVG: 300+ AB) that season; only the top 50 are shown. How each stat qualifies: glossary.
| GP: Games the player appeared in, however briefly. | AB: At-bats: trips to the plate that ended in a hit, an out or an error. Walks and sacrifices are not counted. | R: Runs — scored by the batter, or allowed by the pitcher. | H: Times the batter reached base by hitting the ball, without help from an error. | HR: Home runs hit. | RBI: Runs that scored because of this batter's plate appearance. | SB: Bases taken while the pitcher was delivering. Being caught is counted separately. | AVG: Hits per at-bat. .300 is the traditional line between a good hitter and a great one. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | SF | 52 | 192 | 32 | 68 | 13 | 38 | 2 | .354 |
| 1960 | SF | 101 | 260 | 37 | 62 | 13 | 51 | 1 | .238 |
| 1961 | SF | 106 | 328 | 59 | 89 | 18 | 50 | 1 | .271 |
| 1962 | SF | 91 | 229 | 41 | 67 | 20 | 54 | 3 | .293 |
| 1963 | SF | 152 | 564 | 103 | 158 | 44 | 102 | 1 | .280 |
| 1964 | SF | 130 | 364 | 55 | 80 | 18 | 54 | 2 | .220 |
| 1965 | SF | 160 | 540 | 93 | 149 | 39 | 92 | 0 | .276 |
| 1966 | SF | 150 | 502 | 85 | 148 | 36 | 96 | 2 | .295 |
| 1967 | SF | 135 | 456 | 73 | 126 | 31 | 91 | 3 | .276 |
| 1968 | SF | 148 | 523 | 81 | 153 | 36 | 105 | 4 | .293 |
| 1969 | SF | 149 | 491 | 101 | 157 | 45 | 126 | 0 | .320 |
| 1970 | SF | 152 | 495 | 98 | 143 | 39 | 126 | 0 | .289 |
| 1971 | SF | 105 | 329 | 45 | 91 | 18 | 70 | 0 | .277 |
| 1972 | SF | 81 | 263 | 30 | 56 | 14 | 35 | 0 | .213 |
| 1973 | SF | 130 | 383 | 52 | 102 | 29 | 75 | 1 | .266 |
| 1974 | SD | 128 | 344 | 53 | 87 | 22 | 63 | 1 | .253 |
| 1975 | SD | 122 | 413 | 43 | 104 | 23 | 68 | 1 | .252 |
| 1976 |  SD/ATH | 82 | 226 | 20 | 46 | 7 | 36 | 0 | .204 |
| 1977 | SF | 141 | 478 | 54 | 134 | 28 | 86 | 3 | .280 |
| 1978 | SF | 108 | 351 | 32 | 80 | 12 | 64 | 1 | .228 |
| 1979 | SF | 117 | 353 | 34 | 88 | 15 | 57 | 0 | .249 |
| 1980 | SF | 48 | 113 | 8 | 23 | 1 | 16 | 0 | .204 |
Career Postseason
- GP
- 8
- AB
- 29
- R
- 4
- H
- 9
- HR
- 3
- RBI
- 7
- SB
- 0
- AVG
- .310
Expanded
Career regular season
- PA
- 9,686
- TB
- 4,219
- XBH
- 920
- HBP
- 69
- IBB
- 260
- GIDP
- 0
- P/PA
- 0.00
Ranked among MLB players who qualify (PA: 100+ AB; TB, XBH, HBP, IBB: 300+ AB; P/PA: 300+ PA) that season; only the top 50 are shown. How each stat qualifies: glossary.
| PA: Plate appearances — every trip to the plate, walks and sacrifices included. | TB: Total bases — one for a single, four for a home run. | XBH: Extra-base hits: doubles, triples and home runs. | HBP: Times the batter was hit by a pitch and took first base. | IBB: Walks the other team issued on purpose. | GIDP: Times the batter grounded into a double play — lower is better. | P/PA: Pitches the batter saw per trip to the plate. Above 4.0 is a patient hitter. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | SF | 219 | 126 | 27 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 1960 | SF | 307 | 122 | 31 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 1961 | SF | 374 | 161 | 33 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 1962 | SF | 261 | 135 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 1963 | SF | 627 | 319 | 68 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 1964 | SF | 434 | 150 | 33 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 1965 | SF | 639 | 291 | 60 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 1966 | SF | 588 | 294 | 68 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 1967 | SF | 539 | 244 | 52 | 6 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| 1968 | SF | 608 | 285 | 56 | 5 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 1969 | SF | 623 | 322 | 73 | 4 | 45 | 0 | 0 |
| 1970 | SF | 638 | 303 | 80 | 3 | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 1971 | SF | 402 | 158 | 31 | 4 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| 1972 | SF | 304 | 106 | 22 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 1973 | SF | 495 | 209 | 46 | 1 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 1974 | SD | 442 | 174 | 42 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 1975 | SD | 475 | 190 | 40 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 1976 | SD/ATH | 251 | 76 | 16 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 1977 | SF | 548 | 239 | 49 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 1978 | SF | 389 | 139 | 33 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 1979 | SF | 393 | 142 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1980 | SF | 130 | 34 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
What the columns mean: PA · TB · XBH · HBP · IBB · GIDP · P/PA
Advanced
Career regular season
- WAR
- 60.7
- RC
- 1648.1
- RC/27
- 7.30
- ISOP
- .245
- SECA
- .410
- BB/K
- 0.87
- AB/HR
- 15.7
- GO/FO
- 0.00
Ranked among MLB players with 300+ AB that season; only the top 50 are shown. How each stat qualifies: glossary.
| WAR: Wins above replacement — wins the player added over a freely available fill-in. | RC: Runs created — an estimate of how many runs the batter's hitting produced. | RC/27: Runs a lineup of this batter would score in a full game of 27 outs. | ISOP: Isolated power: slugging minus batting average, so only extra bases count. | SECA: Secondary average: bases from walks, steals and extra-base hits, per at-bat. | BB/K: Walks for every strikeout, a measure of plate discipline. | AB/HR: At-bats per home run — lower means more power. | GO/FO: Ground-ball outs for every fly-ball out. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | SF | 3.0 | 51.4 | 11.1 | .302 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 14.8 | 0 |
| 1960 | SF | 1.6 | 45.4 | 6.1 | .231 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 20 | 0 |
| 1961 | SF | 2.4 | 58.3 | 6.4 | .220 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 18.2 | 0 |
| 1962 | SF | 1.8 | 49.3 | 7.9 | .297 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 11.5 | 0 |
| 1963 | SF | 6.0 | 111.6 | 7.4 | .285 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 12.8 | 0 |
| 1964 | SF | -0.3 | 56.1 | 5.2 | .192 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 20.2 | 0 |
| 1965 | SF | 5.5 | 112.7 | 7.6 | .263 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 13.8 | 0 |
| 1966 | SF | 5.7 | 115.4 | 8.7 | .291 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 13.9 | 0 |
| 1967 | SF | 4.9 | 94.6 | 7.5 | .259 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 14.7 | 0 |
| 1968 | SF | 6.9 | 110.7 | 7.9 | .252 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 14.5 | 0 |
| 1969 | SF | 7.9 | 144.6 | 11.5 | .336 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 10.9 | 0 |
| 1970 | SF | 6.2 | 137.6 | 10.5 | .323 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 12.7 | 0 |
| 1971 | SF | 2.4 | 66.9 | 7.4 | .204 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 18.3 | 0 |
| 1972 | SF | -0.6 | 36.5 | 4.7 | .190 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 18.8 | 0 |
| 1973 | SF | 3.0 | 94.4 | 8.9 | .279 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 13.2 | 0 |
| 1974 | SD | 3.1 | 79.1 | 8.3 | .253 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 15.6 | 0 |
| 1975 | SD | 1.5 | 69.7 | 6 | .208 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 18 | 0 |
| 1976 | SD/ATH | 0.2 | 22.8 | 3.4 | .133 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 32.3 | 0 |
| 1977 | SF | 1.1 | 91.1 | 7.1 | .220 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 17.1 | 0 |
| 1978 | SF | -0.8 | 44.2 | 4.4 | .168 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 29.3 | 0 |
| 1979 | SF | 0.0 | 47.3 | 4.7 | .153 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 23.5 | 0 |
| 1980 | SF | -0.8 | 10.8 | 3.1 | .097 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 113 | 0 |
What the columns mean: WAR · RC · RC/27 · ISOP · SECA · BB/K · AB/HR
What were Willie McCovey's career stats?
Willie McCovey played 22 seasons for the Giants and the Padres. He was a career .270 hitter with 2,211 hits, 521 home runs and 1,555 RBI. His best season was 1959: a .354 batting average, 13 home runs and 38 RBI.
League leaderboards and awards
22 seasons, 2 postseasons, 1959 to 1980
Willie McCovey led MLB in OPS (1968, 1969, 1970); finished top 10 in a stat 20 times.
Awards
All-time career rank
- 20th in home runs (521)
- 187th in hits (2,211)
- 40th in rbi (1,555)
Among the 10,343 MLB players with a career line on file, regular season. A place deeper than 300th is not listed.
Season top 10 finishes
- Batting Average: 1968 (9th), 1969 (9th)
- Home Runs: 1965 (2nd), 1966 (6th), 1967 (6th), 1968 (2nd), 1969 (4th), 1970 (7th), 1973 (9th)
- RBI: 1968 (3rd), 1969 (2nd), 1970 (4th)
- OPS: 1965 (6th), 1966 (3rd), 1967 (9th), 1968 (1st), 1969 (1st), 1970 (1st), 1973 (3rd), 1974 (4th)
Among qualified MLB players each season, as the glossary defines each stat. All-time places are among players on file.
More on Willie McCovey
Similar players
Closest career per-game profiles to Willie McCovey among MLB players at the same position.
- Willie StargellAlike in Home Runs, Slugging %, Runs73out of 100 on profile similarity
- Greg LuzinskiAlike in Runs, RBI, Batting Average68out of 100 on profile similarity
- Jack ClarkAlike in RBI, Batting Average, On-Base %63out of 100 on profile similarity
- Johnny BenchAlike in Batting Average, Runs, RBI61out of 100 on profile similarity
- Bob HornerAlike in Slugging %, Home Runs, Batting Average60out of 100 on profile similarity
Compare Willie McCovey with Willie Stargell, Greg Luzinski, Jack Clark