What years did Jose Contreras play?

Jose Contreras played in Major League Baseball from 2003 to 2013.

Was Jose Contreras a pitcher?

Yes. Jose Contreras pitched in the major leagues, recording 78 wins and 889 strikeouts.

How many home runs did Jose Contreras hit?

Jose Contreras hit 0 career home runs.

What teams did Jose Contreras play for?

Jose Contreras played for 5 teams: the New York Yankees (2003–2004), the Chicago White Sox (2004–2009), the Colorado Rockies (2009), the Philadelphia Phillies (2010–2012), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (2013).

Did Jose Contreras win a Cy Young Award?

No. Jose Contreras did not win the Cy Young Award.

What awards did Jose Contreras win?

Jose Contreras was selected to 1 All-Star Game.

What were Jose Contreras's career stats?

In 299 games, Jose Contreras went 78-67 with a 4.57 ERA, 889 strikeouts, 1,173.0 innings pitched, and 9 saves.

What was Jose Contreras's salary?

Jose Contreras's last recorded salary was $2,500,000, in 2012. His highest recorded salary was $10,000,000, in 2008, and his lowest was $1,500,000, in 2010. The Salary History table lists each season from 2003 to 2012.

What position did Jose Contreras play?

Jose Contreras played primarily as a pitcher, the position where he appeared in the most games.

How tall was Jose Contreras and how much did he weigh?

Jose Contreras was listed at 6 feet 4 inches and 255 pounds.

What was Jose Contreras's career ERA?

Jose Contreras finished with a 4.57 career ERA, going 78-67 with 889 strikeouts.

How many strikeouts did Jose Contreras have?

Jose Contreras recorded 889 career strikeouts.

Is Jose Contreras in the Hall of Fame?

No. Jose Contreras has not been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jose Contreras

Pitcher · Career Stats, Bio & Records (2003-2013)

Jose Contreras was a pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 2003 to 2013 for 5 teams, including the New York Yankees, a span of 11 seasons. Across 299 career appearances, he went 78-67 with a 4.57 ERA and 889 strikeouts. Jose Contreras was an All-Star. His career Pitcher PIV — Baseball Data Hub's era-adjusted measure of pitching impact — is 3134.6.

W (Wins):: Games credited to a pitcher whose team took a lead it never surrendered while he was the pitcher of record.
ERA (Earned Run Average):: Earned runs allowed per nine innings pitched: (ER × 9) ÷ IP. The primary measure of pitching effectiveness.
SO (Strikeouts):: For a batter, times retired on a third strike; for a pitcher, batters retired on a third strike.
WHIP (Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched):: Baserunners allowed per inning: (BB + H) ÷ IP. Under 1.00 is elite.

Data updated October 17, 2026

W–L 78–67

ERA 4.57

WHIP 1.37

SO 889

Pitcher PIV 3134.6

Position: Pitcher
Bats / Throws: R / R
Height / Weight: 6'4" / 255 lb
Born: 12/6/1971 in La Martinas, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
MLB Debut: 2003-03-31
Last Game: 2013-05-27
Awards: All-Star

Full name: Jose Ariel Contreras

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Career Pitching Statistics

Jose Contreras — Career Pitching Statistics
W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	Pitcher PIV
78	67	299	175	5	3	9	1173.0	1,176	595	131	427	889	4.57	3134.6

Career ERA 4.57 vs. league average 4.25 across their career seasons — 7.5% worse than league average.

Season-by-Season Pitching

Pitching Career Arc

Click a stat to plot it across every season.

Jose Contreras Stats, Bio & Career Records
Year	Team	Lg	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA	Lg ERA	Pitcher PIV
2003	NYA	AL	7	2	18	9	0	0	0	71.0	52	26	30	72	3.30	4.40 (+25%)	2134.3
2004	NYA	AL	8	5	18	18	0	0	0	95.2	93	60	42	82	5.64	4.46 (-26%)	-3264.8
2004	CHA	AL	5	4	13	13	0	0	0	74.2	73	44	42	68	5.30	4.46 (-19%)	-182.9
2005	CHA	AL	15	7	32	32	1	0	0	204.2	177	82	75	154	3.61	4.29 (+16%)	445.9
2006	CHA	AL	13	9	30	30	1	1	0	196.0	194	93	55	134	4.27	4.53 (+6%)	2171.6
2007	CHA	AL	10	17	32	30	2	2	0	189.0	232	117	62	113	5.57	4.47 (-25%)	-1121.8
2008	CHA	AL	7	6	20	20	1	0	0	121.0	130	61	35	70	4.54	4.32 (-5%)	364.0
2009	CHA	AL	5	13	21	21	0	0	0	114.2	121	69	45	89	5.42	4.32 (-25%)	574.0
2009	COL	NL	1	0	7	2	0	0	0	17.0	20	3	8	17	1.59	4.32 (+63%)	120.9
2010	PHI	NL	6	4	67	0	0	0	4	56.2	53	21	16	57	3.34	4.08 (+18%)	1156.1
2011	PHI	NL	0	0	17	0	0	0	5	14.0	11	6	8	13	3.86	3.94 (+2%)	296.8
2012	PHI	NL	1	0	17	0	0	0	0	13.2	13	8	3	15	5.27	4.01 (-31%)	440.5
2013	PIT	NL	0	0	7	0	0	0	0	5.0	7	5	6	5	9.00	—	0.0
Career · 13 seasons			78	67	299	175	5	3	9	1,173.0	1,176	595	427	889	4.57	—	3,135

Lg columns show the league average for that season, with the player's figure as a percentage above or below it. Career totals the seasons listed above.

Career Batting Statistics

Jose Contreras — Career Batting Statistics
G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	PIV
299	29	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	18	.000	.094	.000	.094	0

Career AVG .000 vs. league average .262 across their career seasons — 100.0% below league average.

Career OBP .094 vs. league average .329 across their career seasons — 71.5% below league average.

Career SLG .000 vs. league average .415 across their career seasons — 100.0% below league average.

Career OPS .094 vs. league average .744 across their career seasons — 87.4% below league average.

Season-by-Season Batting

Career Arc

Click a stat to plot it across every season.

Jose Contreras Stats, Bio & Career Records
Year	Team	Lg	G	AB	R	BB	SO	AVG	Lg AVG	Lg OBP	Lg SLG	Lg OPS	PIV
2003	NYA	AL	18	3	0	0	2	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2004	NYA	AL	18	8	0	0	5	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2004	CHA	AL	13	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2005	CHA	AL	32	3	0	1	2	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2006	CHA	AL	30	4	1	2	2	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2007	CHA	AL	32	1	0	0	1	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2008	CHA	AL	20	1	0	0	1	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2009	CHA	AL	21	6	0	0	3	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2009	COL	NL	7	3	0	0	2	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2010	PHI	NL	67	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2011	PHI	NL	17	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2012	PHI	NL	17	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
2013	PIT	NL	7	0	0	0	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0.0
Career · 13 seasons			299	29	1	3	18	.000	—	—	—	—	0

Lg columns show the league average for that season, with the player's figure as a percentage above or below it. Career totals the seasons listed above.

Postseason Statistics

Playoff Career Batting

Jose Contreras — Playoff Career Batting
G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

Playoff Batting by Year

Jose Contreras — Playoff Batting by Year
Year	Round	Team	G	AVG
2010	NLCS	PHI	3	.000
2010	NLDS1	PHI	1	.000
2009	NLDS2	COL	2	.000
2005	ALCS	CHA	2	.000
2005	ALDS1	CHA	1	.000
2005	WS	CHA	1	.000
2003	ALCS	NYA	4	.000
2003	WS	NYA	4	.000

Playoff Career Pitching

Jose Contreras — Playoff Career Pitching
W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
4	3	18	4	0	49.0	41	19	11	38	3.49

Playoff Pitching by Year

Jose Contreras — Playoff Pitching by Year
Year	Round	Team	W	L	G	GS	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
2010	NLCS	PHI	0	0	3	0	3.0	1	0	0	3	0.00
2010	NLDS1	PHI	1	0	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	1	0.00
2009	NLDS2	COL	0	0	2	0	2.0	3	1	2	3	4.50
2005	ALCS	CHA	1	1	2	2	17.1	12	6	2	6	3.12
2005	ALDS1	CHA	1	0	1	1	7.2	8	2	0	6	2.35
2005	WS	CHA	1	0	1	1	7.0	6	3	0	2	3.86
2003	ALCS	NYA	0	1	4	0	4.2	6	3	2	7	5.79
2003	WS	NYA	0	1	4	0	6.1	5	4	5	10	5.68

Game Log & Splits

View full game log (598 games) →

Per-game data from Retrosheet (regular season, through 2025).

Batting — Home / Away

Jose Contreras — Batting — Home / Away
Split	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG
Home	150	2	0	0	0	0	.000
Away	149	27	1	0	0	0	.000

Pitching — Home / Away

Jose Contreras — Pitching — Home / Away
Split	G	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Home	150	580.1	565	264	201	435	4.09
Away	149	592.2	611	331	226	454	5.03

Last 10 Games — Pitching

Jose Contreras — Last 10 Games — Pitching
Date	Tm	Opp	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
2013-05-27	PIT	DET	—	0.1	1	2	2	4	0	0
2013-05-23	PIT	CHC	—	0.2	1	1	1	1	1	0
2013-05-16	PIT	MIL	—	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0
2013-05-13	PIT	MIL	—	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2013-05-10	PIT	NYN	—	0.2	3	2	2	1	0	1
2013-05-07	PIT	SEA	—	0.1	1	0	0	0	0	0
2013-05-05	PIT	WAS	—	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0
2012-06-01	PHI	MIA	—	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2012-05-30	PHI	NYN	—	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0
2012-05-27	PHI	STL	—	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Fielding Statistics

Career Fielding Totals by Position

Jose Contreras — Career Fielding Totals by Position
Position	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
P	299	175	44	128	17	7

Season-by-Season Fielding

Jose Contreras — Season-by-Season Fielding
Year	Team	Pos	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
2003	NYA	P	18	9	1	9	1	1
2004	NYA	P	18	18	1	6	1	0
2004	CHA	P	13	13	6	6	1	0
2005	CHA	P	32	32	11	24	2	1
2006	CHA	P	30	30	8	21	2	1
2007	CHA	P	32	30	5	22	6	2
2008	CHA	P	20	20	5	14	0	1
2009	CHA	P	21	21	4	15	4	1
2009	COL	P	7	2	0	2	0	0
2010	PHI	P	67	0	1	7	0	0
2011	PHI	P	17	0	0	0	0	0
2012	PHI	P	17	0	1	0	0	0
2013	PIT	P	7	0	1	2	0	0

Career Games by Position

Position Diamond

Circle size = games played at each position.

Jose Contreras Stats, Bio & Career Records
Position	Games
Pitcher	299

Awards & Honors

Jose Contreras — Awards & Honors
Year	Award	Notes
2009	Player of the Week	Week of 2009-06-13
2006	Pitcher of the Month	April
2005	Pitcher of the Month	September

Salary History

Jose Contreras's recorded salaries total $67,500,000 over 10 seasons, 2003 to 2012. This total is partial: the salary data covers 1985 to 2016, and Contreras's career ran from 2003 to 2013. No salary is recorded for 2013.

Jose Contreras — Salary History
Year	Team	League	Salary
2012	PHI	NL	$2,500,000
2011	PHI	NL	$2,500,000
2010	PHI	NL	$1,500,000
2009	CHA	AL	$10,000,000
2008	CHA	AL	$10,000,000
2007	CHA	AL	$9,000,000
2006	CHA	AL	$9,500,000
2005	CHA	AL	$8,500,000
2004	NYA	AL	$8,500,000
2003	NYA	AL	$5,500,000
Total recorded salary (partial)			$67,500,000

Award Voting History

Jose Contreras — Award Voting History
Year	Award	League	Finish	Points Won	Points Max	Votes First
2005	Most Valuable Player	AL	27th	1.0	392	0

Most Similar Players

Career comps based on counting + rate stats and primary position. Score is relative — closest peer anchors at ~98%.

Career Spans

Jose Contreras (highlighted) compared to peers across the same era.

Jose Contreras: the record in brief

According to the bio, Jose Contreras debuted on March 31, 2003 and played a final game on May 27, 2013. By club, Contreras's seasons break down as the New York Yankees (2003 to 2004), the Chicago White Sox (2004 to 2009), the Colorado Rockies (2009), the Philadelphia Phillies (2010 to 2012), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (2013). Contreras is listed as a pitcher at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds. Contreras batted and threw right-handed, per the bio block. Contreras was born on December 6, 1971, in La Martinas, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The given name on file is Jose Ariel Contreras.

Contreras went 78-67 with a 4.57 ERA in 299 games, 175 of them starts. The totals include 889 strikeouts. The league ERA over Contreras's seasons was 4.25, so the 4.57 figure ran 7.5% worse than average. No season topped the 15 wins of 2005. Among the heaviest workloads, the lowest ERA was 3.61 in 2005, when the league's was 4.29.

Frequently Asked Questions about Jose Contreras

What years did Jose Contreras play?: Jose Contreras played in Major League Baseball from 2003 to 2013.
Was Jose Contreras a pitcher?: Yes. Jose Contreras pitched in the major leagues, recording 78 wins and 889 strikeouts.
How many home runs did Jose Contreras hit?: Jose Contreras hit 0 career home runs.
What teams did Jose Contreras play for?: Jose Contreras played for 5 teams: the New York Yankees (2003–2004), the Chicago White Sox (2004–2009), the Colorado Rockies (2009), the Philadelphia Phillies (2010–2012), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (2013).
Did Jose Contreras win a Cy Young Award?: No. Jose Contreras did not win the Cy Young Award.
What awards did Jose Contreras win?: Jose Contreras was selected to 1 All-Star Game.
What were Jose Contreras's career stats?: In 299 games, Jose Contreras went 78-67 with a 4.57 ERA, 889 strikeouts, 1,173.0 innings pitched, and 9 saves.
How much did Jose Contreras earn in his career?: Jose Contreras's recorded salaries total $67,500,000 over 10 seasons, 2003 to 2012. This total is partial: the salary data covers 1985 to 2016, and Contreras's career ran from 2003 to 2013. No salary is recorded for 2013.
What was Jose Contreras's salary?: Jose Contreras's last recorded salary was $2,500,000, in 2012. His highest recorded salary was $10,000,000, in 2008, and his lowest was $1,500,000, in 2010. The Salary History table lists each season from 2003 to 2012.
What position did Jose Contreras play?: Jose Contreras played primarily as a pitcher, the position where he appeared in the most games.
How tall was Jose Contreras and how much did he weigh?: Jose Contreras was listed at 6 feet 4 inches and 255 pounds.
What was Jose Contreras's career ERA?: Jose Contreras finished with a 4.57 career ERA, going 78-67 with 889 strikeouts.
How many strikeouts did Jose Contreras have?: Jose Contreras recorded 889 career strikeouts.
Is Jose Contreras in the Hall of Fame?: No. Jose Contreras has not been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.