The vanishing complete game.

Last night, Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski threw a 1 hitter with 15K’s on only 95 pitches. It was a masterpiece by any definition, in any era. But in 2026, even completing the game was special.

I was a pitcher growing up, through HS. Pitching was the only thing athletically where I displayed much of any talent. I studied pitchers and they have always been my favorite athletes to watch. My heroes were Roger Clemens, then as an adult, Pedro Martinez.

But among this elite group of athletes, a change as remarkable as any in pro sports has occurred. They almost never complete the games they start any more. While you would think this coddling of elite arms would produce healthier, longer careers, arm injuries are epidemic and we may never see a 300 game winner again.

At the risk of trading in nostalgia porn or flirting with manosphere-coded whining about how we have gone soft, dammit I miss seeing pitchers running out of gas, but fighting to stay in the game to the end.

A century-long trend

My Gen X-coded brain thinks of Clemens, Dwight Gooden or late-career Nolan Ryan snarling at their managers to stay in and defaulting to 9 IP dominance.

But the decline in complete games is a trend that started long after the dead-ball era of the early 1900s, when pitchers mostly stayed in games unless their arm fell off or their appendix ruptured, I assume. In Gooden’s historic 1985 season, he had 16 CG’s and 8 shutouts. But he didn’t even lead the league in either category. In 1988, 14 pitchers had 10 or more CG’s. But as you can see, the 80s were already in a steep decline with the rise of closers and bullpen specialization.

By 2025 there were 29 CG’s across all of MLB. The Cincinnati Reds led the league with four. 13 teams did not have a single CG, including the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Declining pitch counts

Unsurprisingly, the gate is not pitching talent, but a reluctance to let pitchers go deep in games and rack up eye-watering pitch counts. In 1988, Roger Clemens threw more than 120 pitches 17 times, topping 150 four times. In 2025, only two pitchers topped 120 pitches.

The shrinking ace

Today’s pitchers are pushing the limits of the human body, throwing faster than ever, striking out batters at record rates. But with fewer innings pitched, wins and even total strikeouts, they may leave less of a mark in the historical record. The last pitcher to have a 10+ WAR (wins above replacement) season was Zack Greinke in 2009.