Looking Back At Andy Pettitte's Career

by Dusty Writes

November 22, 2025

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Some Yankees pitchers have had incredible statistics in which they haven't received enough credit for. Andy Pettitte pitched 18 seasons and never had a losing record in any season!

According to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Pettitte finished his career as the first pitcher to pitch more than 15 seasons in MLB without having a losing season.

Although the Yankees and Astros had good teams throughout Pettitte's career, that is still a remarkable achievement. According to Baseball Reference, there are 49 pitchers in MLB who won 250 or more games. Pettitte won 256 games, which was especially impressive, as he pitched in a time in which there was a 5-man rotation, and pitchers pitched very few complete games compared to previous generations.

Pettitte is 43rd on the list of most wins by a pitcher in history. The vast majority of the pitchers ahead of him on the list are in the Hall of Fame. Every one of these pitchers had at least one losing season. Some of these pitchers had many losing seasons in their career.

Pettitte's career winning percentage is fantastic ( .626). Baseball Reference says the average winning percentage of all the Hall of Fame pitchers is .591. Pettitte's win percentage is much greater than the average HOF pitcher. To say his win percentage is much greater than the average pitcher is one thing, but to say it is much better than the average HOF is amazing. Even though Pettitte played on teams that had very high winning percentages, his winning percentage was higher than his team's win percentage overall.

Pettitte is ranked with the 73rd highest winning percentage in history. There were at least 20 players ahead of him on that list who were either relief pitchers, or had very short careers, in which they probably should not have been included on this list due to insufficient innings and games pitched. Pettitte probably should have been ranked about 46th-50th best all time. His winning percentage is higher than more than 40 HOF pitchers, some of which he is significantly higher.

Pettitte's career ERA of 3.85 may seem high compared to other great pitchers, however, he pitched in one of the highest scoring periods in history, which included the steroid era. His ERA+ was 117, which is great, better than more than 20 HOF pitchers.

His postseason record was almost identical to his regular season as far as winning percentage and e.r.a. He had 19 wins and only 11 losses with a solid 3.81 ERA. He was one of the best clutch pitchers of his generation, and much more reliable in the clutch than many pitchers in the HOF.

He was on 5 world championship teams and teams that won 8 pennants. 

Critics of Pettitte's career will point out his PED use and say he should not be in the HOF. That is a valid opinion. Some say that just by his stats, and discounting his PED usage, he is not a HOF. But his numbers seem very impressive and better than some already in the HOF. 

While Pettitte never won a Cy Young Award, he did finish 2nd, 4th,5th twice and 6th once. He pitched at a time in which some of the greatest pitchers of all time were pitching. We know that Pettitte was not on the same level as the greats such as Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and a few others. To say a pitcher is not a HOF because he doesn't compare to those legends would be making the HOF standards or criteria much too high.

How much emphasis should be placed on career WAR as far as determining if Pettitte is a HOF? Pettitte has a career WAR of 60.7 per Baseball Reference, better than more than 20 pitchers already in the HOF. I am not comparing Pettitte to legends such as Whitey Ford and Sandy Koufax. Does the fact that Pettitte has a higher career WAR than Ford and Koufax  give Pettitte a fairly good chance of eventually getting into the HOF? 

Whitey Ford also has incredible statistics that doesn't get mentioned, as far as I know. In his 16-year career, he never had a high ERA in any season. His highest ERA in a season was 3.24. He never had a below average ERA+ in his entire career !  As far as I know, no pitcher in history pitched 15 or more years without having a below average ERA except Whitey Ford. Ford's last 2 seasons he had a combined record of 4 wins and 9 losses, even though his ERA was great. Had he not pitched those last 2 seasons, his career winning percentage would have been .705 !