Let us take a look back through MLB history at the all-time workhorses for each team.
The death of former Pittsburgh pitcher Bob Friend a few years ago brought to light Friend’s generally forgotten distinction: He pitched more innings for the Pirates than any pitcher in the franchise’s history.
In Friend’s case, that encompassed 3,480.1 innings over 15 seasons. That was nearly 280 more than the previous Pirate standard-bearer, Wilbur Cooper, whose mark he eclipsed in 1964. Since then, the closest any Pirate has come to matching Friend’s total was the 2,672 innings amassed by Friend’s long-time teammate, Vernon Law, when he retired after 16 seasons in 1967.
Friend also remains the franchise leader in several other categories, including strikeouts (1,682) and starts (477).
With the recent losses of Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow, the current Pirates really have nobody with enough experience to project a possibility of some day catching Friend.
Do you know which pitcher leads your favorite team in all-time innings pitched? It’s not always the obvious answer. Keep in mind that pitchers in days of yore tended to stay in games longer than is today the practice.
Still six franchise-leading pitchers were primarily active with their teams during the 21st Century. Of course that’s generally because their teams were created late in the 20th Century. Only two recent pitchers lead a team whose history dates back farther than 1992.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the roster of most active pitchers is a list of names from your great-granddad’s era. A dozen primarily pitched following the first expansions of 1961-62. The careers of four other leaders, Friend among them, essentially bisected the first expansions.
All-time leaders of the remaining eight teams do go back to the days of eight-team leagues.
Presented in order of the number of their franchise-leading innings pitched, here are the 29 pitchers who share with Friend the distinction of being a team-leader in workload. You can test your own knowledge of both franchise and MLB history, because in the introduction to each team three options are presented, only one of whom is the actual leader.