Time
to go ahead and give former 20-win pitcher Jim Merritt a career-capping
“not so missing” 1976 card, as he closed out an 11-year Major league
career with a handful of games with the Texas Rangers the year before:
Merritt appeared in five games with Texas in 1975, throwing 3.2
scoreless innings while not factoring in a decision, all out of the
bullpen.
That would be the last action for him on a big league mound, closing out
an eleven-year career that saw him come up with the Minnesota Twins in
1965 as a 21-year-old before moving on to the Cincinnati Reds in 1969
for four years before the last three with the Rangers.
In 1970 he had arguably his best season in the Majors when he went 20-12
with the Reds, finishing fourth in Cy Young voting while making his
only All-Star team.
I say “arguably” because that year his earned run average was a high
4.08, while in 1967 with the Twins he went 13-7 with a wonderful 2.53
ERA over 37 appearances, 25 of those starts, tossing a career-high four
shutouts with 161 strikeouts.
Overall, he’d finish his career with a record of 81-86, posting an ERA
of 3.65 over 297 appearances and 1483 innings of work, throwing nine
shutouts while collecting seven saves along the way.