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Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola is the clear NL Cy Young favorite

By Koy Zdimal

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 09: Aaron Nola #27 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches in the first inning against the New York Mets during game two of a doubleheader at Citi Field on July 9, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JULY 09: Aaron Nola #27 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches in the first inning against the New York Mets during game two of a doubleheader at Citi Field on July 9, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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Aaron Nola is having a career season for the Phillies. It’s already rewarded him with an All-Star selection, so what else could it win him?

It’s hard to “three-peat” in sports. Lebron James and the super team Miami Heat couldn’t do it. It’s happened once in the MLB since 1975. It’s never happened in Super Bowl history. The Golden State Warriors just added another top 10-player this year to try and be able to do it.  Even awards like the MVP are hard to win three times in a row. In the NBA, Larry Bird last did it from 1983-1985. Barry Bonds did the iconic “four-peat” starting in 2001 and once again, it’s never happened in the NFL. 

A month ago it looked like we would see a threepeat. Max Scherzer looked poised to claim his third consecutive NL Cy Young award. He was leading in almost all statistical categories. Prior to June, he was 9-1 with a 2.08 ERA. With Clayton Kershaw hurt, it looked like he would run away with the award once again.

But now Aaron Nola has emerged. Nola had arguably his best start of the year last night against the Mets. He tossed seven scoreless one-hit innings while striking out 10 batters on the way to his NL leading 12th victory. Not to mention, he drove in all three of the Phillies runs in the victory. He posted his 15th quality starts in just 19 games. The start also boosted him ahead in Cy Young competition.

Nola is now top five in the NL in almost every pitching category. Here’s a rundown of the stats:

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  • ERA: 2.27-2nd
  • Wins:12-1st
  • Strikeouts: 126-4th
  • WHIP:0.98-2nd
  • Batting average against: .200-3rd
  • Innings pitched: 123.0-2nd
  • Games started:19-T-1st
  • WAR: 5.8 (1st)

Nola has surpassed all other candidates with these last two starts. The only other real candidates are Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Jon Lester, each who have large holes in their arguments. 

Lester is an easy knock. While he is having a very impressive year for a very good team, he is behind Nola in each of the seven stats listed above.

deGrom is in a very tough situation. Put him on a different team and he might very well be the winner come November. His 1.79 ERA leads all of baseball while also posting a sub 1.00 WHIP. However, it is going to be very hard to give the award to a pitcher with an 8-7 record on a 65 win team. In addition, if the trade rumors ending up proving true and deGrom is shipped downtown or to some other AL team, it would be hard to give him an NL award.

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Scherezer is a tough call. He is indeed in the midst of a very good season. He is 11-5 with a 2.33 ERA and an MLB-high 177 strike outs. Yet Scherzer has been on a recent downward slide. In his last seven starts, he is 2-4 with a 3.00 ERA. He is also on a very underperforming team. While not entirely his fault, the Washington Nationals are 45-45 and are 5.5 games back from a playoff spot and are not showing too many signs of a burst coming.

Scherzer is in a larger market drawing more attention from the voters. We could see the same media boredom we see with the NBA press as they might not want to hand out the award to the same man for the third straight year.

All the potential the Phillies saw in Nola four years ago when they drafted him seventh overall is coming together. His 12-2 record – don’t forget Gabe Kapler robbed him of a win on Opening Day after pulling him early – has already matched a career high in wins. He is on pace to set an career low in ERA by a whole run.

Next: Phillies promote Adam Haseley to Double-A Reading

While deGrom, Lester and the two time reigning champ Scherzer are all having great seasons, it is clear who is having the best year. With the toughest part of the Phillies schedule behind them, Nola could be the first Phillie to reach 20 wins in a season since Roy Halladay in 2010. It might not be the only thing Nola copies from Halladay from that year.

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