San Diego Padres (1973–1980) , Winfield chose baseball; the
San Diego Padres selected him in the first round, with the fourth overall selection, of the
1973 MLB draft. Winfield signed with the Padres, who promoted him directly to the major leagues. Although he was a pitcher, the Padres wanted his powerful bat in the lineup and put him in right field, where he could still use his powerful arm. He
batted .277 in 56 games for his first season. The next three seasons saw gradual improvement: he had his first 20-HR season in 1974 while batting .265 in 145 games that had him play mostly in left field. The following year saw him shifted to right field, where he would play most of the next six seasons. By the time of his fourth season being over, his best average in the majors was .283 (1976). Over the next several years, he developed into an All-Star player in San Diego, gradually increasing his ability to hit for both power and average. In 1977, he had his first All-Star season, doing so while batting .275 in 157 games with 25 home runs. He would be an All-Star every year until 1988. In 1978, he was named team captain. That year, he finished 10th in MVP voting and had his first .300 season with a .308 year in 158 games. He had his first 100-RBI season the following year while batting .308 with a league-leading 118 RBIs to go with 24 intentional walks; he had his first season with more walks (85) than strikeouts (71). He won a Gold Glove and finished 3rd in the MVP voting. In his final season with the Padres in 1980, he played in all 162 games for the only time and batted .276 to go with 20 home runs and a Gold Glove victory.
New York Yankees (1981–1990) In December 1980,
New York Yankees owner
George Steinbrenner made Winfield the game's highest-paid player by signing him to a ten-year, $23 million contract (equivalent to $ million in ). Steinbrenner mistakenly thought he was signing Winfield for $16 million, unaware of the meaning of a cost-of-living clause in the contract, a misunderstanding that led to an infamous public feud. The $2.3 million annual average value of the contract
set a record. He more than doubled the previous record set when
Nolan Ryan signed with the
Houston Astros in 1979. Winfield was among the highest-rated players in the game throughout his Yankee contract. He was a key factor in leading the Yankees to the 1981 American League pennant. In the
1981 American League Division Series, Winfield batted .350 with two doubles and a triple and made some important defensive plays helping the Yankees to victory over the
Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately, Winfield had a sub-par
World Series, which the Yankees lost to the
Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. After getting his only series hit, Winfield jokingly asked for the ball. Steinbrenner did not find this humorous, and criticized Winfield at the end of the series. Many commentators have since noted that Winfield's postseason doldrums were somewhat overstated when compared to those of his teammates. Four of his seven hits came in games won by the Yankees. The team's offense for the most part was inconsistent, and they were also set back by key injuries to
Reggie Jackson and
Graig Nettles, who each only played three games with one combined RBI (the same as Winfield). in 1983 Winfield did not let Steinbrenner's comments affect his play. He hit 37 home runs during the season. On August 4, , Winfield killed a seagull by throwing a ball while warming up before the fifth inning of a game at Toronto's
Exhibition Stadium. Fans responded by hurling obscenities and objects onto the field. After the game, he was brought to a nearby
Metropolitan Toronto Police station and charged with cruelty to animals. He was released after posting a
$500 bond. Yankee manager
Billy Martin quipped, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man all season." As Winfield missed the Yankees team bus to
Hamilton that night to catch their flight home, he was driven to Hamilton personally by Blue Jays general manager
Pat Gillick. For years afterward, Winfield's appearances in Toronto were greeted by fans standing and flapping their arms. From 1981 through , Winfield was the most effective run producer in MLB. In 1984, he and teammate
Don Mattingly were in a race for the batting title in which Mattingly won out by .003 points on the last day of the season; Winfield finished with a .340 average. In the last few weeks of the race, it became obvious to most observers that the fans were partial to Mattingly. Winfield took this in stride, noting that a similar thing happened in 1961 when
Mantle and
Maris competed for the single season home run record. In 1985, Steinbrenner derided Winfield by saying to
The New York Times writer
Murray Chass, "Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May." This criticism has become somewhat of an
anachronism as many cite the statement to Steinbrenner after the 1981 World Series. Winfield was struggling while the Yankees eventually lost the division title to Toronto on the second to last day of the season. He also forced Yankee managers to move him down in the batting order and bench him. Steinbrenner frequently tried to trade him, but Winfield's status as a 10-and-5 player (10 years in the majors, five years with a single team) meant he could not be traded without his consent. Winfield continued to put up excellent numbers with the Yankees, driving in 744 runs between 1982 and , and was selected to play in the
All-Star Game every season. Winfield won five (of his seven)
Gold Glove Awards for his stellar outfield play as a Yankee. In 1989, Winfield missed the entire season due to a back injury. was the last year of his contract with the Yankees, but the troubles with Steinbrenner in his feud with Winfield continued to escalate. He had a rusty spring training before being relegated from the field to being the designated hitter. Further troubles led to being just the DH against left-handed pitchers. On May 11, manager
Bucky Dent and general manager
Pete Peterson met in a room with the intent of stating a trade of Winfield for
Mike Witt of the
California Angels. Winfield stepped in the room and stated his refusal to be traded; the argument over whether his 10-and-5 rights overrode his list of having the Angels on his trade list failed to meet at an impasse when Angels owner
Gene Autry came in with a three-year extension. He proceeded to hit 19 home runs in 112 games for the Angels in the remainder of the 1990 season. As for Steinbrenner, he attempted to curry favor by stating to Winfield that he would welcome back Winfield openly if he had won the arbitration case; by this point in the month of May, he was already under investigation by commissioner
Fay Vincent for his apparent connections to
Howard Spira, a known gambler with supposed
Mafia connections, whom he had paid $40,000 for embarrassing information on Winfield. A month later, the team received a fine that required them to pay money to the league and the Angels for tampering and Steinbrenner soon received a life-time ban. However, the suspension lasted only two years. He
hit for the cycle in June 1991 against the Kansas City Royals, hitting 5-for-5 in the game. He also recorded his 400th home run against the Twins in his hometown.
Toronto Blue Jays (1992) Winfield was still a productive hitter after his 40th birthday. On December 19, , he signed with the
Toronto Blue Jays as their designated hitter, and also made "Winfieldian" plays when he periodically took his familiar position in right field. He batted .290 with 26 home runs and 108 RBI during the season. Winfield proved to be a lightning rod for the Blue Jays, providing leadership and experience as well as his potent bat. Winfield was a fan favorite and also demanded fan participation. In August, he made an impassioned plea to the reserved fans during an interview for more crowd noise. The phrase "Winfield Wants Noise" became a popular slogan for the rest of the season, appearing on T-shirts, dolls, buttons, and signs. The Blue Jays won the pennant, giving Winfield a chance at redemption for his previous post-season futility. In Game 6 of the
World Series, he became "Mr. Jay"
Minnesota Twins (1993–1994) After the 1992 season, Winfield elected free agency and signed with his hometown
Minnesota Twins. In 1993, he batted .271 with 21 home runs, appearing in 143 games for the Twins, mostly as their
designated hitter. On September 16, at age 41, he collected his
3,000th career hit with a single off
Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley. During the
1994 baseball strike, which began on August 12, Winfield was traded to the
Cleveland Indians at the trade waiver deadline on August 31 for a
player to be named later. The 1994 season had been halted two weeks earlier (it was eventually canceled a month later on September 14), so Winfield did not get to play for the Indians that year and no player was ever named in exchange. To settle the trade, Cleveland and Minnesota executives went to dinner, with the Indians picking up the tab. This makes Winfield the only player in major league history to be "traded" for a dinner (although official sources list the transaction as Winfield having been sold by the Twins to the Indians).
Cleveland Indians (1995) Winfield, who was the oldest player in MLB at the time, again elected free agency in October but re-signed with the Indians as spring training began in April . A
rotator cuff injury kept him on the disabled list for most of the season, thus he played in only 46 games and hit .191 for
Cleveland's first pennant winner in 41 years. He did not participate in the Indians' postseason.
Honors and awards Winfield retired in . In his first year of eligibility, he was inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame in as a San Diego Padre, the first Padre to be so honored. The move reportedly irked Yankees' owner
George Steinbrenner, however Winfield sounded a conciliatory note toward him, saying, "He's said he regrets a lot of things that happened. We're fine now. Things have changed." In 1998, Winfield was inducted by the
San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame, honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface. , displayed at
Petco Park In , Winfield ranked number 94 on ''The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players'' and was a nominee for the
Major League Baseball All-Century Team. He was inducted into the
San Diego Padres Hall of Fame in 2000. The
Padres retired Winfield's No. 31 on April 14, 2001. On July 4, , Winfield was inducted into the
College Baseball Hall of Fame in its inaugural class. In 2010, Winfield was selected as one of 28 members of the NCAA Men's College World Series Legends Team. The
Big Ten Network named Winfield its #15 ranked Big Ten Conference "Icon" in 2010. The
2016 MLB All-Star Game, played at
Petco Park in San Diego, was dedicated to Winfield. He had represented the Padres at the
first All-Star Game to be played in San Diego. On June 21, 2024, Winfield returned to
Fairbanks for the unveiling of a bronze statue near
Growden Park, where he had played for the
Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. Winfield also threw out the ceremonial
first pitch for the annual
Midnight Sun Game. ==Post-playing career and appearances==