A few weeks ago, I watched a game on TV. An analyst mentioned a player’s performance, and he indicated the pitcher has thrown some complete games so far in his career.
Complete games, well, sound like something unusual in today’s baseball games. After watching the game, I was just thinking about leaders in complete games. To solve some doubts, I decided to check on the MLB website and baseball reference website.
Firstly, how about leaders in complete games? Well, the answer isn’t a surprise. Cy Young tossed 749 complete games in his career. In 22 seasons, he made 815 starts and there were 749 complete games. In today’s baseball, it's so hard to imagine. Moreover, Pud Galvin made 681 starts in his career and he threw 639 complete games. Cy Young and Galvin are the only 2 pitchers who threw more than 600 complete games.
In addition, 4 other pitchers each threw 500+ complete games in their careers. Tim Keefe made 594 starts in his career and there were 554 times that he tossed a complete game. Kid Nichols made 561 starts and there were only 30 times that he didn’t complete a game. Walter Johnson played from 1907 to 1927 and he had 531 complete games. Mickey Welch threw 525 complete games.
However, when we shift our focus on today’s games, things have become different. Justin Verlander, who will retire after this season, has thrown 26 complete games so far in his career. In particular, he used to throw 6 complete games in 2012. And Verlander is the only active player who has thrown 20+ complete games.
In addition, Chris Sale has made 300+ starts so far in his career. He has thrown 17 complete games and in 2016, he threw 6 complete games. And he just threw a complete game against the Dodgers a few days ago. Sandy Alcantara is close to making 200 starts in his career. He already threw 13 complete games and in particular, he threw 6 complete games in 2022, a year that he won the NL Cy Young award.
Finally, Dallas Keuchel is still playing and he has thrown 12 complete games in his career. Max Scherzer has 12 complete games thus far in his career. In particular, he threw 4 complete games in 2015. 2 of them were no-hitters. And Carlos Carrasco has 11 complete games in his career, but he’s not pitching in the majors at this moment.
Looking at the leaders in complete games, it’s clear that things have become so different in today’s baseball games. The pitching usage has been so different and we are not seeing many pitchers complete a game on their own. Justin Verlander will retire after this season. In the coming seasons, is it possible to see a pitcher reach 20 complete games in his career? We can keep watching, however, it might not come soon as we know that there are so many ideas on pitching usage in today’s games. We might still see some players toss a complete game. Nevertheless, it might be hard to see a pitcher toss multiple complete games in a single season. So far this season, no pitcher has done that.
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