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While it took more than 50 years for the second pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000 career strikeouts (Bob Gibson in 1974 after Walter Johnson in 1923), eight more pitchers would join that illustrious club in less than a decade between 1978 and 1986. During an era when pitchers routinely threw more than 300 innings per season, nearly all of these new strikeout kings accumulated close to or more than 5,000 career innings pitched – this included a couple of foreign-born hurlers in Dutchman Bert Blyleven and Canadian Ferguson Jenkins. As true workhorse starters, each threw over 4,500 career innings and won over 280 career games to go with the 3,000+ strikeouts, thus making for an interesting comparison between these two Hall of Famers:
Who was better – Bert Blyleven or Ferguson Jenkins?
The Beginning
As mentioned, both Blyleven and Jenkins were born outside of the United States, but picked up baseball at an early age and were stars at the amateur level; however, whereas the former quickly experienced success at the major league level, it would take the latter a little longer to find his niche.
Born in the Netherlands, Blyleven moved to Canada as a young child before settling down in Southern California, where he was inspired by Sandy Koufax to pick up baseball. After excelling at baseball in high school, he was drafted straight out of high school in the third round of the 1969 MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins and would make his major league debut just a year later, going 10-9 in 1970 with a 3.18 ERA (119 ERA+, which is an advanced statistic that adjusts a pitcher’s ERA for both his ballpark and the league-wide ERA; 100 is average), 1.16 WHIP, and 135 strikeouts in 164.0 innings pitched.
As for Jenkins, he was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, where he played a variety of sports growing up, including hockey, basketball, baseball, and track and field. Originally a first baseman on the diamond, he converted to pitcher and was signed in 1962 by the Philadelphia Phillies. Following his big league debut in 1965 at age 22 (12.1 innings pitched in 7 games), Jenkins was traded to the Chicago Cubs midway through the 1966 season with Adolfo Phillips and John Herrnstein for Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl; while still a hybrid starter/reliever that year, he would soon make the transition to being a full-time starter.
Career Comparison
With around two decades of MLB service apiece, Blyleven and Jenkins were consistently among the league leaders in innings pitched during their primes, thus racking up the wins and strikeouts; after starring for their original teams, both pitchers played for a number of different teams during the back halves of their careers.
Starting at the age of 20, Blyleven would become a true workhorse starter, racking up 200+ innings a season for the next decade. Following a couple of seasons with around a .500 record despite a sub-3.00 ERA and 200+ strikeouts, he earned his first All-Star selection in 1973 with a 20-17 record, a league-leading and career-best 9 shutouts, 2.52 ERA (156 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, and a career-best 258 strikeouts in a career-high 325.0 innings pitched to also place seventh for AL Cy Young. Despite two more seasons with 15+ wins, a sub-3.00 ERA, and 200+ strikeouts, thus making it five consecutive years for each milestone, Blyleven’s first stint with the Twins was rocky and midway through the 1976 season, he was dealt to the Texas Rangers in a six-player deal.
Thus began the nomadic middle part of Blyleven’s career, where he was consistently dependable, but never truly dominant. Across two-and-half seasons with Texas, his best season was in 1977 on the strength of a 14-12 record, 2.72 ERA (151 ERA+), a league-best and career-best 1.07 WHIP, and 182 strikeouts in 234.2 innings pitched. Nevertheless, after throwing a no-hitter in his final start of the season, he was captured on national television giving the finger and was subsequently traded in the first blockbuster four-team deal in MLB history involving the Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, and New York Mets; as one of 11 players dealt, Blyleven ended up in Pittsburgh, where he played for two seasons. After threatening to retire in 1980, he was sent back to the AL, this time to the then-Cleveland Indians, where he struggled with injuries, though had a sensational 1984 season: 19-7 with a 2.87 ERA (144 ERA+), 1.14 WHIP, and 170 strikeouts in 245. innings pitched to finish a career-best third for AL Cy Young. As an encore, he earned a second and final All-Star selection in 1985 across the Indians and the Twins (he was traded back to Minnesota at midseason): 17-16 record with a league-leading 24 complete games and 5 shutouts, a 3.16 ERA (134 ERA+), 1.15 WHIP, and a league-high 206 strikeouts in a league-high 293.2 innings pitched to again finish third in Cy Young voting.
In his second go-around with the Twins, Blyleven was not quite as good, as his ERA gradually rose to 4.01 in back-to-back seasons and a career-worst 5.43 during a 1988 season that also saw him lead the league with 17 losses and set a record for home runs allowed. On the other hand, he did become just the 10th pitcher in league history to reach 3,000 career strikeouts during the 1986 season. Upon joining the then-California Angels in 1989, he posted one last great season, going 17-5 with a 2.73 ERA (140 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, and 131 strikeouts in 241.0 innings pitched for a fourth-place Cy Young finish. Finally, after missing the entire 1991 season with injury, Blyleven pitched one last season with the Angels in 1992 before retiring at age 41; only Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, and Steve Carlton have more career strikeouts than the Dutchman.
As a Cub, Jenkins would blossom into a true ace and have some of his best seasons. Starting in 1967, he reeled off seven straight seasons in Chicago with 200+ innings pitched, including six 20-win campaigns with 20+ complete games and five 200-strikeout seasons; the streak of 20-win seasons was the longest since Warren Spahn in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Notably, he earned his first All-Star selection in 1967 with a 20-13 record, 2.80 ERA (127 ERA+), 1.08 WHIP, and 236 strikeouts in 289.1 innings pitched, also finishing as NL Cy Young runner-up. During this span, Jenkins placed top-three for Cy Young on three other occasions in back-to-back-to-back years:
- 1970: 22-16 with a 3.39 ERA (132 ERA+), a league-leading 1.04 WHIP, and a career-high 274 strikeouts in 313.0 innings pitched; third for Cy Young
- 1971: a league-best 24-13 record with a 2.77 ERA (141 ERA+), 1.05 WHIP, and 263 strikeouts in a league-leading 325.0 innings pitched; won the NL Cy Young (thus becoming the first Cubs pitcher and first Canadian to earn the honors), earned a second All-Star selection, and finished seventh for NL MVP
- 1972: 20-12 with a 3.20 ERA (118 ERA+), 1.09 WHIP, and 184 strikeouts in 289.1 innings pitched; again third for Cy Young and again an All-Star
Following a lackadaisical 1972 season (14-16 record with a 3.89 ERA), Jenkins was traded to the Rangers for Bill Madlock and Vic Harris. In his first season with the Rangers, he had a career-best and league-best 25-12 record with a 2.82 ERA (126 ERA+), a career-low 1.01 WHIP, and 225 strikeouts in a career-high 328.1 innings pitched to finish as AL CY Young runner-up to Catfish Hunter and fifth for AL Cy Young despite not being an All-Star. He only stayed with the Rangers for one more year, though, before being traded to the Boston Red Sox, where he posted a couple of middling seasons.
In 1978, Jenkins rejoined the Rangers and again had a sterling year, going 18-8 with a 3.04 ERA (123 ERA+), 1.08 WHIP, and 157 strikeouts in 249.0 innings pitched to place sixth for Cy Young. However, he was then around a .500 pitcher over the next three years with the club; infamously, he was found carrying illegal drugs during a customs search in Toronto in 1980 and was originally suspended indefinitely by MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, but the suspension was then overturned by an independent arbiter. At the age of 39, Jenkins returned to the Cubs, where he had a 14-15 record with a 3.15 ERA in 1982 and became the seventh member of the 3,000-strikeout club; after a final season in Chicago in 1983, the 40-year-old Jenkins retired from MLB.
All in all, Blyleven spent 22 seasons in the big leagues vs. 19 for Jenkins, which resulted in around 40 additional games played and around 500 additional innings pitched. Despite this disparity, the pair are separated by just a handful of wins (a 287 vs. 284 edge for the former), though the latter also lost fewer games. Additionally, Blyleven has the significant advantage in strikeouts and shutouts, as well as smaller leads in ERA and ERA+, but Jenkins compiled a lower career WHIP. Breaking it down by seasons, both pitchers had 10 15-win seasons, but Jenkins retains a large lead in 20-win seasons (7x vs. 1x), whereas his counterpart racked up more 300-strikeout campaigns (8 to 6); these accomplishments led to more All-Star selections (3x vs. 2x) and a Cy Young for Jenkins. However, when you boil this down by advanced metrics into Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Blyleven actually holds the edge by a hair above 10 WAR at 94.5 vs. 84.2. Despite having 3,000+ strikeouts and close to 300 wins apiece, both hurlers had to wait their turns for the Hall of Fame, with Jenkins making it in 1991 and Blyleven finally getting the call in 2011.
Regular Season Statistics
| Bert Blyleven | Player | Ferguson Jenkins |
| 22 (1970-1990, 1992) | Seasons | 19 (1965-1983) |
| 692 | Games Played | 664 |
| 4,970.0 | Innings Pitched | 4,500.2 |
| 287-250 | W-L Record | 284-226 |
| – | Saves | 7 |
| 3.31 | ERA | 3.34 |
| 118 | ERA+ | 115 |
| 1.20 | WHIP | 1.14 |
| 3,701 | Strikeouts | 3,192 |
| 60 | Shutouts | 49 |
| 94.5 | Wins Above Replacement | 84.2 |
| 2x | All-Star Games | 3x |
| – | MVP | – |
| – | Cy Young | 1x |
| 2x | World Series Titles | – |
| – | Other Awards | – |
| 2011 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1991 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
While Blyleven and Jenkins both pitched for roughly two decades, playoff appearances were few and far between for each of them; in fact, like many Cubs stalwarts of that era, Jenkins never played in the postseason.
Meanwhile, though he only made the postseason 3x, Blyleven certainly made those limited appearances count, winning two World Series titles with two different teams. After pitching sparingly in 1970 in the ALCS with Minnesota, he was part of the 1979 Pirates team had beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series in seven games – Blyleven was terrific in both the NLCS (1-0 with a 1.00 ERA and 9 strikeouts in a complete game win) and the World Series (1-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 4 strikeouts in a pair of starts). Almost a decade later, he helped guide the Twins to their first World Series title, going 2-0 in the ALCS vs. the Detroit Tigers and then 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA (4 earned runs in 13.0 innings pitched) and 12 strikeouts across two starts vs. the St. Louis Cardinals in another seven-game World Series victory.
Playoff Statistics
| Bert Blyleven | Player | Ferguson Jenkins |
| 8 | Games Played | – |
| 47.1 | Innings Pitched | – |
| 5-1 | W-L Record | – |
| – | Saves | – |
| 2.47 | ERA | – |
| 1.08 | WHIP | – |
| 36 | Strikeouts | – |
| – | Shutouts | – |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; following their consistently dominant primes with the Twins and Cubs, respectively, Blyleven and Jenkins remained effective starters for a number of clubs, though were more up-and-down from year to year during the back halves of their careers. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Bert Blyleven | Player | Ferguson Jenkins |
| 1971-1975, 1977, 1981, 1984-1985, 1989 | Decade of Dominance | 1967-1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982 |
| 342 | Games Played | 375 |
| 2,621.0 | Innings Pitched | 2,839.2 |
| 163-123 | W-L Record | 196-130 |
| – | Saves | 1 |
| 2.80 | ERA | 3.01 |
| 1.13 | WHIP | 1.09 |
| 1,988 | Strikeouts | 2,148 |
| 43 | Shutouts | 37 |
| 66.4 | Wins Above Replacement | 62.5 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
After normalizing across decades of dominance, the comparison is even closer: Jenkins pitched more and won more games with more strikeouts and a lower WHIP, yet Blyleven sported a lower ERA with more shutouts and compiled more WAR.
My Thoughts
To put the careers of Bert Blyleven and Ferguson Jenkins into context, only a dozen pitchers in MLB history have racked up 3,000+ career strikeouts with 280+ wins (including the pair). Nevertheless, between the duo, I think Jenkins was clearly the superior pitcher. While Blyleven pitched longer, won more games, accumulated more strikeouts, and had a higher career WAR while also winning a pair of World Series titles, he is a classic example of a “compiler” (though there is no shame in that) – he only won 20 games once, has the fewest All-Star selections of any Hall of Famer (two), and was generally always very good, but rarely dominant. In contrast, Jenkins may not have had quite as much longevity, but during his peak with the Cubs, he was consistently elite with an almost unmatched string of 20-win seasons, plus a Cy Young to boot. Ultimately, I would say the Hall of Fame agrees as well, as it took Blyleven nearly his full 15 years of eligibility to get into Cooperstown and he remains one of the more hotly-debated recent inductees; in contrast, Jenkins also took a few tries, but part of that may have been voters “punishing” him for his 1980 drug incident.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Ferguson Jenkins
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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