How Jordan Lyles made a $50m career out of the art of losing

Why does the Kansas City pitcher keep getting chances to lose? Sometimes it's easy to underestimate those athletes for whom availability is a virtue

The poet Elizabeth Bishop once wrote that the art of losing isn't hard to master." The exception to that rule may be Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Jordan Lyles, who has proven it takes a special kind of talent to consistently lose at the major league level. He's shown, in fact, it's possible to make a nice career out of it.

While his career has mostly flown under the radar, Lyles was making headlines for the worst possible reasons in 2023. Before Saturday's 9-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Royals had lost all 15 games he had started this season, with Lyles himself going 0-11 in those appearances.