Butch Wynegar

American baseball player (born 1956)

Harold Delano "Butch" Wynegar Jr. (born March 14, 1956) is an American former professional baseball catcher who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and California Angels, and was a two time All Star. In his first season in professional baseball, he batted a league leading .346 batting average and .464 on base percentage with a .524 slugging percentage and eight home runs and 51 RBIs (5th in the league) for the Rookie League Elizabethton Twins, and was named an Appalachian League All Star. In 1975, Wynegar played for the unaffiliated Reno Silver Sox of the California League, and batted .314 (4th in the league)/.473 (2nd in the league/.500 (4th in the league). He led the league with 142 walks and 112 RBIs, and was 2nd in the league with 106 runs and 19 home runs. (Reno was officially unaffiliated, but had agreements with the Twins and the San Diego Padres to take players on optional assignment from those teams.)

The Twins invited him to their spring training camp in 1976, where he successfully made the team, never having played Double or Triple A baseball. To date, Wynegar is the only catcher to have ever jumped directly from A ball to the majors. Wynegar proved to be adept both behind the plate and batting. In 1976 he was the fourth youngest baseball player in the AL. Wynegar was batting .294 with six home runs and 37 runs batted in at the 1976 All Star break and was named to the American League All Star team his rookie season. He drew a walk in his only at bat, and became the youngest player at the time to appear in an All Star Game (20 years, 212 days). For the season, Wynegar had 650 putouts, second in the league behind Jim Sundberg, and batted .260 with ten home runs and 69 RBIs and was 9th in the league in walks, with 79. Wynegar had six home runs and 47 RBIs at the midpoint of the 1977 season to make his second consecutive All Star team. He drove in a career high 79 runs for the season, and had established himself as one of the better fielding catchers by leading the American League in baserunners caught stealing with 60, and logging a .993 fielding percentage along with 84 assists, second only to Sundberg. He led the league again in 1979, throwing out 64 baserunners, led the league in caught stealing percentage at 52.9%, and once again finished second to Sundberg in fielding percentage with a .992 average. In 1980, he led all AL catchers in double plays, with 13. Wynegar claimed that Twins owner Calvin Griffith wanted to get rid of high priced players however, Griffith responded that Wynegar was being traded because his batting average was only .209.

Wynegar hit well with the Yankees in 1982, producing a .293 average in 63 games. Wynegar became the Yankees starting catcher in 1984, playing in 129 games. In 1985, Wynegar caught both Phil Niekro's 3000th strike out and his 300th win. After three and a half seasons with New York, Wynegar became a free agent and re signed with the Yankees for the 1986 season. However, the stress of playing for a high profile team in New York City led by owner George Steinbrenner, manager Billy Martin, and then manager Lou Piniella began to wear on him and led to him suffering from a deep depression. A contract dispute in 1985, the firing of Yankee manager Yogi Berra, and a personality conflict with new Yankee manager Billy Martin took their toll on Wynegar's morale. In July 1986, Wynegar informed the Yankees that he had lost his enthusiasm for the game and did not want to play in New York anymore. He called Clyde King, the general manager, and asked him for permission for some time off, explaining that he could no longer cope. Months later, Wynegar requested to be traded.

With the Angels, Wynegar became a back up for the first time in his career, working behind Bob Boone during the 1987 season. In May 1987 the Angels' team physician removed bone spurs from his arthritic right big toe, and operated again after the season removing calcium deposits from Wynegar's foot. He retired as a player early in the 1988 season at the age of 32, as he was batting .255/.338/.418, due to his arthritic big toe. From 2003 to 2006 Wynegar was the hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2007, he went back in the New York Yankees' organization, serving as hitting coach through 2014 for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders. In 2015, Wynegar moved to the Pirates organization as AAA Indianapolis Indians hitting coach. In 2018, he was made hitting coach of the Pirates' Class A Advanced affiliate Bradenton Marauders.

In a 13 year major league career, Wynegar played in 1,301 games, accumulating 1,102 hits in 4,330 at bats for a .255 career batting average along with 65 home runs and 506 runs batted in. He ended his career with a .989 fielding percentage. Wynegar logged 10,521 innings behind the plate in his career.

Wynegar grew up in York, Pennsylvania, the son of Harold D. Wynegar Sr. and Dorrea L. "Dee" (Storm) Wynegar. He attended Red Lion High School. Wynegar had a son, Mark, with his wife, Deborah.