For the second time in four years, Zack Wheeler delivered the Phillies a Cy Young-caliber season only to come away as the runner-up.
Wheeler finished second to Chris Sale in the National League's Cy Young voting, announced Wednesday night on MLB Network. Sale, who was also named NL Comeback Player of the Year last week, won the Cy Young for the first time after six top-five finishes earlier in his career.
Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes, Wheeler the other four. Wheeler was voted second on 25 ballots and fourth on one.
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Both had tremendous seasons and were worthy choices.
Sale went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and struck out 225 batters, leading the NL in wins, ERA and K's.
Wheeler went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA, leading the NL in WHIP (0.96), quality starts (26), opponents' batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
Wheeler's biggest advantage over Sale was his innings count — he pitched 23⅓ more than Sale. It wasn't as laughable a disparity as 2021, when Wheeler's 46⅓ additional innings to Corbin Burnes still weren't enough in a much closer race, but it was again a meaningful difference. Wheeler pitched the equivalent of two more months than Burnes in 2021 and one more month than Sale in 2024.
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Ridiculously, Wheeler's huge innings totals and workhorse mentality may have slightly hurt his quest for a Cy Young. It sounds crazy, but consider this: He has a 2.94 ERA since joining the Phillies and a 3.51 ERA in the seventh inning. The innings total seems to be secondary to voters to rate stats, and all those times Wheeler pitched into the seventh that Sale and Burnes did not negatively affected his ERA in relation to theirs.
That's not meant to diminish Sale, who didn't allow more than two earned runs in any of his final 18 starts, but rather an explanation of how the best pitcher of a five-year period can come away with no Cy Youngs.
Sale built a sizable advantage with excellent start after excellent start to keep the Braves afloat during the summer. Wheeler appeared to close the gap late, pitching to a 1.89 ERA in his final 11 starts, the worst of which was six innings and two runs. Sale, meanwhile, did not pitch after September 19 because of back discomfort, missing even the final day of the season when he was scratched from the second game of the Braves' must-win doubleheader against the Mets.
Wheeler did more in September but BBWAA voters determined that Sale did more the preceding five months. And so Wheeler heads into 2025 still in search of the award he covets, likely as motivated as ever after dominating in his only playoff start only to watch everything else unravel once he departed.
