James Lee Kaat ( ;Minnesota Twins 1965 Press-Radio-TV Guide (inside front cover). Retrieved 3 September 2026. born November 7, 1938), nicknamed "Kitty", is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. A left-handed pitcher, he played Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins (–), Chicago White Sox (–), Philadelphia Phillies (–), New York Yankees (–), and St. Louis Cardinals (–) for a then-record 25 years.
Kaat was an All-Star for three seasons and a Gold Glove winner for 16 straight seasons. He was the American League (AL) leader in shutouts (5) in 1962, and the AL leader in wins (25) and complete games (19) in 1966. In accumulating his 283 career wins, he had three 20-win seasons. Kaat won 190 games with the Senators/Twins (all but one win coming with the latter team), second most in club history and most since the team moved to Minnesota; he also has the most Gold Glove Awards of any Twin with 12.
After a brief stint as a pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds, Kaat became a sportscaster and for the next 22 years, calling games for the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. Following a brief retirement in 2006, he called Pool D for the 2009 World Baseball Classic in Puerto Rico, games for NESN in 2009, and worked for the MLB Network from its inception in 2009 until August 2022.
Kaat was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Golden Days Era Committee in .
Early life Kaat hails from Dutch ancestry. He was the youngest of four children born to John and Nancy (Bosma) Kaat. He attended the schools of Zeeland, Michigan, and is a 1956 graduate of Zeeland High School. During his high school years, he excelled at basketball and baseball.
Kaat attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and pitched for the school's Flying Dutchmen baseball team, before being signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent in 1957.
Baseball career Kaat spent all of 1957 and 1958 in the minor leagues before breaking into the majors in 1959 with the Washington Senators. After pitching in 16 games spread out over the next two seasons, Kaat became a permanent member of the pitching staff when the Senators franchise moved west in 1961 to become the Minnesota Twins. On July 24, 1963, Kaat threw a complete-game shutout and hit a home run for a 5–0 Twins win over the Indians.July 24, 1963 Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Box Score and Play by Play Baseball-Reference.com Minnesota pitchers have only homered in the same game in which they threw a shutout three times, and Kaat did so twice, a second time on October 1, 1970.October 1, 1970 Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins Play by Play and Box Score Baseball-Reference.com
Kaat was a member of the 1965 Twins team that won the American League pennant. He started three games in the 1965 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, matching up with Sandy Koufax on all three occasions, including a complete game victory in Game 2.
His best season was in 1966, when he led the league with 25 wins and 19 complete games. He finished fifth in the MVP voting and was named the American League Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. The National League's Sandy Koufax won the Cy Young Award by a unanimous vote; it was the last year in which only one award was given for all of Major League Baseball. Although his 1967 season was somewhat of a let down compared to 1966 (he finished 16–13 with a 3.04 ERA), he went on a tear in September and nearly pitched the Twins to another World Series appearance — cruising to a 7–0 record with a 1.51 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 65 innings pitched. However Kaat sustained a season-ending arm injury in the third inning of the second-to-last game and the Boston Red Sox swept the final two to win the American League pennant.
In 1974, he went 21–13, setting a record for largest gap between 20-win seasons at eight, a mark that stood until broken by David Cone in 1998. Kaat recorded his third 20-win season in 1975, when he posted a 20–14 record and 3.11 ERA while throwing 303.2 innings at the age of 36; an All-Star and Gold Glove winner, he finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting.
Kaat was primarily a front of the rotation starting pitcher until 1979 (when he turned 40 in his 21st season), twice leading the AL in starts, with 42 in 1965 and 41 in 1966. He became a relief pitcher that season, split between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees, following three up and down years in the Phillies rotation (where he'd arrived in an off-season trade from the Chicago White Sox with Mike Buskey in exchange for Dick Ruthven, Alan Bannister and Roy Thomas on December 10, 1975Koppett, Leonard. "Phils Obtain Kaat In 5‐Player Trade," The New York Times, Thursday, December 11, 1975. Retrieved May 2, 2020). After just three games split between starting and relieving in Philadelphia, he was purchased by New York, which used him 40 times, 39 in relief. Transitioning into a specialist short reliever, Kaat pitched four more years and appeared in 180 games, 167 out of the bullpen. He earned his only World Series ring with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982, working in four games in relief in the 1982 World Series.
Kaat appeared in 898 games, started 625, and threw for 4,530.1 innings. He was an All-Star three times (1962, 1966, 1975), and won the Gold Glove Award for defensive skill a record 16 consecutive times (1962–1977). His record for career Gold Gloves by a pitcher later fell to Greg Maddux's 18. Kaat used the same baseball glove for 15 seasons.
In 1983, he became the last major league player to have played in the 1950s and the last player for the original Washington Senators to retire. Kaat is one of only 29 players in baseball history to date to have appeared in Major League games in four decades. At the time of his retirement, Kaat's 25-year career was the longest of any pitcher in major league history. He is now third all-time, behind Nolan Ryan's 27 years and Tommy John's 26.
Kaat also set a 20th-century record by playing during the administrations of seven U.S. Presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jr., Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. This mark was equaled by Nolan Ryan when he retired after the 1993 season, the first year of the administration of Bill Clinton.
Career statistics CategoryWLPCTERAGGSCGSHOSVIPHRERHRBBSOWPHBPTotal283237.5443.4589862518031174530.146202038173839510832461128122
As a hitter, he was better than average, recording a career .185 batting average (232-for-1251) with 117 runs, 44 doubles, 16 home runs, 106 Runs batted in, and 63 walks.
Post-retirement Coaching Upon retirement as a player, Kaat served a short stint with the Cincinnati Reds as the club's pitching coach. When Pete Rose took over in 1984 as the Reds' player/manager, he made good on a promise to Kaat, his former Philadelphia Phillies teammate, and hired the former hurler for his coaching staff. Kaat would coach part of the 1984 season and all of 1985, a year in which he guided Cincinnati rookie Tom Browning to a 20–9 record. "At least I can say I had a 20-game winner every year I coached," Kaat used to joke.
Special assistant In January 2018, Jim Kaat was hired by the Minnesota Twins as a Special Assistant. Kaat's role is "to help assist Twins president Dave St. Peter in business, marketing and community initiatives".
Post-baseball activities Broadcasting career Early days As stated during the television broadcast of the seventh game of the 1965 World Series, Kaat was a broadcaster on local radio in Minnesota. Following his stint as pitching coach, he went into sports broadcasting full-time starting out as the chief baseball correspondent for Good Morning America from 1984 to 1985.
His first full-time broadcasting job was with the Yankees was during the 1986 season, where he called around 100 games for WPIX.Michael Kay and Jim Kaat to Provide Play-by-Play and Analysis, Respectively, For... New York, Prnewswire.com He only lasted one season as the Yankees replaced him with Billy Martin, who was between managing stints and who was purposely brought in to second-guess Lou Piniella. In between broadcasting stints for the Yankees, he spent six years (–) as an announcer for the Twins.
In 1986, Kaat was the backup announcer for NBC Sports' coverage of baseball with Phil Stone (for the April 19 Minnesota–California contest) and Jay Randolph (the June 14 Cincinnati–Atlanta contest). In April 1987 Kaat served as an announcer of Atlanta Braves broadcasts on TBS. In 1988, he covered the College World Series and the MLB playoffs and World Series for ESPN and also served as an analyst for NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics.
1990s From –, Kaat served as an analyst for CBS television, teaming with Dick Stockton and then, Greg Gumbel (for whom Kaat also called the College World Series with for CBS from 1990–1993) in . Besides calling four American League Championship Series for CBS (1990–1993), Kaat served as a field reporter with Lesley Visser (1990–1992) and Andrea Joyce (1991) during the World Series. Kaat also covered three World Series Trophy presentations for CBS (1990–1992). Over the course of Game 2 of the 1992 ALCS, Kaat was stricken with a bad case of laryngitis. As a result, Johnny Bench had to come over from the CBS Radio booth and finish the game with Dick Stockton as a "relief analyst". There was talk that if Kaat's laryngitis did not get better, Don Drysdale was going to replace Kaat on TV for Game 3 and possibly the rest of ALCS while Bench would continue to work on CBS Radio. In 1993, he filled in for Lesley Visser until late August as CBS' primary field reporter after she suffered injuries in a bizarre jogging accident in New York City's Central Park.
In 1994, he was the lead analyst on Baseball Tonight for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball. In 1995, he was nominated for a New York Emmy Award for "On Camera Achievement". Also in , Kaat called the American League playoffs with Brent Musburger for ABC/The Baseball Network including the Yankees–Seattle Mariners Division Series and the American League Championship Series.
He served his second stint as an announcer for Yankees games on the MSG Network/YES Network (–), where his straight-shooting style was much in the mode of former Yankees broadcasters Tony Kubek and Bill White. In addition, he was on the team which won the "Outstanding Live Sports Coverage – Single Program" New York Emmy for covering Dwight Gooden's no-hitter on May 14, 1996, and David Wells's perfect game on May 17, 1998.
21st century Towards the end of his second stint with the Yankees, his workload decreased. In 2006, he only broadcast 65 games. Despite his decreased workload, Kaat won another Emmy for on-air achievement in 2006.
In an on-air broadcast on September 10, , with booth partner Ken Singleton, Kaat acknowledged his plan to end his broadcasting career. His final appearance in the booth was to be a Yankee–Red Sox game on September 15, 2006 (Kaat was also set to throw out the first pitch). However, the game was postponed due to rain. Kaat later announced that he was going to record a special farewell message to the fans, but would not return for any additional broadcasts. However, the following day, Kaat did announce one full inning of the first game of Saturday September 16's doubleheader on Fox along with Tim McCarver and Josh Lewin. During that Fox telecast he was able to say goodbye to the Yankee fans, an opportunity that the previous night's rainout had deprived him of doing on the YES Network.