Kansas City Royals: Top 15 Pitchers In Losses All-Time

Kansas City Royals All-Time Loss Leaders – Number 15: Jeff Montgomery (50 Losses)

Jeff Montgomery didn’t spend his entire career with the Royals but he came awfully close. Only 14 of his 700 appearances weren’t served in a Royals’ uniform.

Jeff Montgomery has the distinction of being the only Royals’ pitcher on this list who didn’t start a game. He did start a game in his lone season with the Cincinnati Reds, but his other 699 appearances came out of the bullpen.

Montgomery’s losses usually came in the form of blown saves and he didn’t do that very often. He saved 304 games in his 12 years as a Royal and held a tie for the single season record at 45 until Greg Holland beat it.

His 304 saves are 24th all-time among saves leaders and he’s one of only 27 pitchers to reach 300 saves. In spite of his accomplishments for the Royals, Jeff Montgomery never got a taste of the postseason. All of his 13 seasons ended with him walking away at the end of the regular season. It’s something that a lot of Royals’ greats never got to experience.

All in all, the Royals got a pretty good return in the Montgomery deal. They traded a player named Van Snider to the Reds in return for Montogery. He went on to hit .200 across the 19 total games he played in the Major Leagues. The Royals got a three-time All-Star and the best closer in team history.

As good as Montgomery was, his 50 losses were good enough, or bad enough, to land him on this list. It’s interesting that, as bad as the Royals had been for a stretch, only 15 players totaled 50 or more losses in a Royals’ uniform. They did a good job of spreading out the wealth, so to speak.

Next: No Soup For You