Most Wins by a Pitcher in a Season

Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, and Bob Gibson are all legends of the game, all of whom are nowhere near the record for the most wins by a pitcher in a season.

While total wins are impressive, a pitcher’s win/loss record does not directly reflect the quality of the pitcher. In fact, many great pitchers such as Jacob DeGrom lack total wins because of a lack of run support.

Baseball-Reference tracks “cheap wins” and “tough losses”, which boils down to losses in quality starts and wins in non-quality starts. Since 2014, DeGrom has 7 cheap wins and 27 tough losses.

“Jacob deGrom watching Max Scherzer throw a gem and get zero run support” – Dylan Hornik

With that being said, a win still means that the pitcher went at least five innings, meaning they generally had a solid outing. In 2022, Kyle Wright of the Atlanta Braves led the majors for the most wins with 21, followed by Cy Young favorite Justin Verlander, who had 18.

“Kyle Wright … NL Cy Young winner? The odds may not be in his favor, but one prediction formula has the MLB wins leader claiming the award. Plus, what a Max Fried extension could look like, and more. #Braves” – Battery Power

While 21 wins is impressive, the all-time winning crown goes to ‘Old Hoss’ Charles Radbourn, who has the record for the most wins in a season with 60 wins in 1884. Radbourn posted this unbreakable record over the course of an ungodly 678.2 innings. By comparison, the most innings pitched was by Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins, who threw 228.2 total innings.

“Happy birthday to the Old Hoss! 165 years ago today, a young whippersnapper named Charles Radbourn was born a little ways west of Cooperstown. He’d grow up to be hailed as the “King of Pitchers” and a Hall of Famer.” – National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The insane number of innings pitched by Radbourn is another reason why his record will never be broken. In fact, on the all-time single-season win list, the only pitcher in the top 50 to throw less than 400 innings was Christy Mathewson, who still threw 390.2 innings.

Which pitcher has had the most wins in a season in the last 20 years?

While no one will ever come close to the number of wins that Radbourn produced in today’s version of the game, there are still some impressive win totals considering how cautious teams are with their pitchers.

The pitcher with the most wins in a single-season since 2002 was Hall of Fame hurler Randy Johnson, who recorded 24 wins in 2002.

“Randy Johnson is the only pitcher with a perfect game, a 20-k game, and a vaporized dove game. #NLCS #ALDS #TDIH” – Interesting AF