Most Losses in MLB History (Pitchers)

Cy Young holds the record for the most losses in MLB history, with 316. In one of baseball’s great statistical quirks, Young is also the all-time leader in wins, with 511, a testament to the staggering workloads that pitchers carried more than a century ago.

Career losses are an unusual record because they tend to belong not to bad pitchers but to great ones who pitched for a very long time. Reaching the top of this list requires two decades or more of durability. Here is the full leaderboard of the pitchers with the most losses, and why the names read like a Hall of Fame roll call. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record holder: Cy Young and 316 losses

Cy Young pitched from 1890 to 1911, an era when a staff ace might make 45 starts and complete almost all of them. That volume produced totals no modern pitcher can approach: 511 wins, 316 losses, and 749 complete games, all records that still stand.

Because he pitched so often and for so long, Young accumulated both the most wins and the most losses in history. The sport later named its award for the best pitcher in each league after him, cementing his status as a founding legend rather than a cautionary tale.

The full leaderboard of the most losses by a pitcher

The table below ranks pitchers by career losses. All are retired.

Rank	Losses	Pitcher	Career span
1	316	Cy Young	1890-1911
2	310	Pud Galvin	1875-1892
3	292	Nolan Ryan	1966-1993
4	279	Walter Johnson	1907-1927
5	274	Phil Niekro	1964-1987
6	265	Gaylord Perry	1962-1983
7	256	Don Sutton	1966-1988
8	254	Jack Powell	1897-1912
9	251	Eppa Rixey	1912-1933
10	250	Bert Blyleven	1970-1992

Nearly every name on the list is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, underscoring that big loss totals come from long, productive careers.

Galvin, Ryan and the workhorses

Pud Galvin, second with 310 losses, pitched in the 19th century and, like Young, also won more than 300 games. Nolan Ryan, third with 292, is the most modern pitcher near the top, a durability marvel who threw a record seven no-hitters and pitched until age 46. For his signature skill, see our leaderboard of the most strikeouts by a pitcher.

The Hall of Fame connection

Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton and Bert Blyleven all pitched into the 1980s or beyond and all reached the Hall of Fame despite their high loss totals, because their longevity also produced hundreds of wins. Their presence here shows how the record rewards endurance rather than punishing failure. For the flip side of a pitcher’s ledger, see our leaderboard of the most saves in MLB history.

Why the record matters

Modern pitchers throw fewer innings and start every fifth day, so no active pitcher will ever approach 300 losses, or 300 wins. That makes Cy Young’s dual records, the most wins and the most losses, permanent monuments to a bygone era of the game. For a team-level look at futility, see our guide to the longest losing streak in MLB history.

The short version: Cy Young holds the MLB record with 316 career losses, the same pitcher who also owns the record for 511 wins. As of the 2025 season, no active pitcher is remotely close, leaving this list a monument to baseball’s early workhorses.