Former Pirates catcher Ed Ott dies at 72 years old

The Pirates announced Sunday that former Major League catcher Ed Ott died at the age of 72. 

“We are saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family,” said Pirates president Travis Williams in a statement. “Ed spent seven of his eight years in the Major Leagues with the Pirates and was a valued member of our World Series Championship team in 1979. It was great to see him last summer when he was in Pittsburgh to support former teammate Kent Tekulve at our Hall of Fame induction ceremony.”

Born in Muncy, Pennsylvania, in 1951, Ott was part of both the football and wrestling teams at his local high school, although he did not play baseball there on account of the school not having a baseball team. Instead, Ott participated in American Legion Baseball during the summers as a third baseman before being drafted in the 23rd round of the 1970 draft by the Pirates, at which point the club converted him from the infield to the outfield. Ott spent three seasons as an outfielder in the Pirates’ minor-league system before the club once again asked him to change positions, this time moving him behind the plate.

While Ott had previously made his Major League debut in 1974 as a bench bat with a brief two-game cameo in right field, he would spend the next six seasons of his career as a catcher for the Pirates. After making just 10 trips to the plate across his first two big league seasons combined, Ott impressed in a 27 game stint as an emergency catcher behind injured backstops Manny Sanguillen and Duffy Dyer. While his playing time remained limited, Ott made the most of the opportunity by slashing .308/.349/.359, an above average slash for the era. That winter, the Pirates shipped Sanguillen to the A’s as compensation for hiring away manager Chuck Tanner, a deal that opened the door for Ott to take on primary catcing duties in the 1977 season.

In his first season as a Major League regular, Ott performed well with a respectable .264/.334/.395 slash line in 347 trips to the plate across 104 games while spending 712 2/3 innings behind the plate. That combination of reliability behind the plate and roughly league average offense continued for the rest of Ott’s time with the Pirates, as he slashed .268/.316/.383 across the next three seasons while appearing in at least 112 games during each season. Ott is most famous for his role as a key piece on Pittsburgh’s 1979 team, which won 98 games before sweeping the Reds in the NLCS and being crowned World Series champions after beating the Orioles in a seven-game set. It’s the fifth and most recent championship in franchise history. Ott went 7-for-25 during that postseason, knocking in three runs during the World Series and scoring the game-winning run against Baltimore in Game 2.

Ott’s time in Pittsburgh came to an end following the 1980 season when he was traded to the then-California Angels alongside southpaw Mickey Mahler in exchange for All Star first baseman Jason Thompson. Ott appeared in 75 games for the Angels in 1981, though he batted just .217 with .545 OPS before undergoing surgery on his rotator cuff that winter, causing him to miss the 1982 campaign. Ott spent the next two seasons in the Angels’ minor-league system before retiring in 1984. Following his playing career, Ott went on to serve as a minor-league manager in the Pirates organization and a big league coach with the Astros and Tigers.

We at MLBTR join the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to Ott’s family, friends, loved ones and former teammates and colleagues around the league.