Zack Wheeler has been nothing short of dominant since leaving the New York Mets and joining the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the 2020 season. He has stayed relatively healthy and became one of Major League Baseball’s elite pitchers.
Wheeler has finished second in Cy Young voting twice in his five years with the Phillies. He finished 10 points behind Corbin Burnes in 2021 and came up short again in 2024 behind Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale.
The point totals for the award are calculated based on the voting by members of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America (BBWAA). As expected, Wheeler and Sale received the majority of the first and second-place votes. One voter not only didn’t give Wheeler a first or second-place vote, but he gave the Phillies’ ace a fourth-place vote.
Zack Wheeler takes hilarious jab at misguided Cy Young voter
Wheeler received four first-place votes, 25 second-place votes and that one outlier of a fourth-place vote. Associated Press reporter David Brandt stirred up a storm with his Cy Young ballot and the reasoning behind it that he posted on X.
Hello fellow baseball enthusiasts! I was wondering why my feed was blowing up. Oh.
— David Brandt (@davidbrandtAP) November 21, 2024
Here's my reasoning.
1. Sale - pretty obvious
2. Skenes - i thought what he did as a rookie was truly generational
3. Greene - .183 oba and highest WAR in NL
4. Wheeler - great season, all around https://t.co/SiAdDb5IEE
Wheeler and Sale were clearly the two National League favorites to win the award. Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes pitched exceptionally well in his rookie season, but nobody was more deserving than Wheeler or Sale.
Giving Skenes a second-place vote wasn’t necessarily crazy considering he had the most third-place votes. The fact that Brandt gave Skenes a second-place vote and Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene a third-place vote ahead of Wheeler is mind-boggling. Greene had a phenomenal season, but he finished eighth in NL voting with only five points.
The MLB Instagram account shared a post highlighting Wheeler’s impressive 2024 season. Wheeler took a jab and left his thoughts on Brandt’s reasoning for his fourth-place vote in the post’s comment section, simply commenting, “Great season, all around.”
If there’s one thing Brandt wasn’t wrong about, Wheeler did have a great season all around. The 34-year-old went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA in 200 innings pitched and piled up 224 strikeouts.
Wheeler was top five in the majors in wins, innings pitched, ERA and WAR among qualified starting pitchers. He was top 10 in K/9 and was tied for the second most starts made. He had the most quality starts with 26. Wheeler led the NL with a 0.955 WHIP and a .192 batting average against.
Wheeler has come so close to a Cy Young Award twice and will have at least three more chances to win it in a Phillies uniform. The right-hander won’t be a free agent until 2028, his age 38 season.