Phillies 2023 Cy Young: Ranking the top 5 Most Valuable Phillies pitchers this season
Ranking the most valuable Phillies pitchers and awarding the team Cy Young for 2023.
With the MLB season officially over and the World Series trophy awarded, and not to the Philadelphia Phillies (grumble, grumble), let's take a look back at the top pitching performances from the Phillies' 2023 regular season.
For this exercise, we'll be looking at each player's overall value to the team during the regular season, using FanGraphs' Wins Above Replacement (fWAR) value.
If you're a little rusty on your advanced baseball stats like WAR, no problem. Simply put, it's a way that the baseball stats nerds came up with "to summarize a player's total contributions to their team in one statistic," according to Piper Slowinski of FanGraphs.
Per Piper, "WAR is all-inclusive and provides a useful reference point for comparing players" and tells us what a player is worth to their team compared to a replacement player.
In case you missed it, we already compiled our Phillies MVP list of the Most Valuable Phillies position players.
First up, which hurlers just missed the cut and have to settle for an honorable mention?
Cristopher Sánchez just misses out on making the top five, coming in with 1.8 WAR after getting to the party late this season. After a fleeting April appearance, he came up for good in mid-June and bailed out the rotation with some solid work in his 99 1/3 innings. He finished with a 3.44 ERA and a 20.2 percent K-BB rate.
Jeff Hoffman, another later-comer, didn't make his season and Phillies debut until early May but racked up 1.5 WAR as a reliever. He provided a reliable presence out of the bullpen, finishing with a 2.41 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings.
Now, which pitchers came out on top as the Most Valuable Phillies of 2023?
No. 5: Matt Strahm, 2.0 fWAR
Matt Strahm proved to be a Swiss Army knife, jack-of-all-trades hurler for manager Rob Thomson and the Phillies in his first season in Philadelphia and compiled a 2.0 WAR.
After signing a 2-year $15 million deal in the offseason, he jumped into the rotation in the first week of the season. He made six starts in a row with a 3.51 ERA and struck out 36 in 25 2/3 innings.
When he returned to the bullpen, the left-hander acted as an "opener" on four occasions but never got another real start. He finished the year with a 3.29 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP in his 87 2/3 innings.
The 31-year-old was money out of the bullpen. In 54 1/3 innings as a reliever, he posted a 2.82 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP, with a 10.48 K/9. He had an 82.2 percent strand rate, good for 21st among all qualified relievers. For reference, the league average was 71.5 percent.
He was even better under pressure. In 15 high-leverage situation relief appearances, Strahm gave up three earned runs, leading to a 2.70 ERA and a 1.36 FIP. He struck out 14 in 10 innings, posting a 38.9 percent strikeout rate. He held opposing hitters to a stingy .167 batting average and .233 slugging percentage.
No. 4: Ranger Suárez, 2.4 fWAR
Ranger Suárez was an absolute stud as a third starter for the Phillies in the postseason. While his regular season had some ups and downs, he flashed some impressive stuff when things were going well, and compiled a 2.4 WAR.
After missing the first six weeks of the season with elbow inflammation, the lefty finally got into game action. It took him a few starts to find his groove, but from May 30 through the end of June, he went 2-1, registering a quality start in each of his six outings, with a 1.35 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP.
After hitting a rough patch in July, Suárez put together another impressive six-game stretch around a two-week stay on the IL with a strained hamstring. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 16, he pitched to a 2.86 ERA and logged four more quality starts, striking out 36 in 34 2/3 innings.
Despite ending his year with a couple of rough outings, the 28-year-old finished the regular season with a 4.18 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 125 innings over 22 starts. Although, his .324 BABIP, 3.90 FIP, and 4.05 xFIP show that he maybe should have had better results. That .324 BABIP was the fifth-highest among starting pitchers with at least 120 innings.
No. 3: Taijuan Walker, 2.5 fWAR
Despite getting the short end of the stick in the postseason, Taijuan Walker and his 2.5 WAR finished as the third most valuable Phillies pitcher this season.
In his first season of the 4-year, $72 million contract he signed in the offseason, Walker had one of the best years of his 11-year career, value-wise. He earned 2.6 WAR last season with the New York Mets and reached 2.5 WAR with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017.
Despite not always having a smooth ride, the 31-year-old veteran was dependable for his new team. He took the ball every turn through the rotation, making 31 starts and pitching to a 15-6 record with a 4.38 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP in 172. 2/3 innings.
After a solid showing for Mexico at the World Baseball Classic, the right-hander got off to a slow start with the Phillies, culminating in an eight-run blowup in Los Angeles against the Dodgers on May 1. He settled in after that, for the most part, and posted a 2.72 ERA over his next 13 outings.
The phenomenal stretch included a personal seven-game win streak from June 6 to July 15. He had a 1.64 ERA and only gave up eight earned runs while striking out 43 in 44 innings over the dominant span.
Even though he was the only Phillie not to make an appearance in the postseason, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski gave Walker a vote of confidence in his end-of-year press conference.
"He won 15 games, he pitched 175 innings for us in in in a year in which not many people are doing that," Dombrowski said. "He took the ball basically every fifth day or sixth day at various times. I think he had a real solid season for us. I think he did a nice job."
No. 2: Aaron Nola, 3.9 fWAR
Aaron Nola comes in at No. 2 after a tumultuous season in which the Phillies were never quite sure which version of Nola would take the mound from start to start. He finished strong with a stellar postseason performance, but we're focusing on his regular season today.
Nola was, at the very least, dependable. The right-hander took the ball every turn through the rotation, making 32 regular season starts, which helped him accumulate his 3.9 WAR. He usually ended up going deep-ish into his starts, even the ones in which he wasn't his sharpest.
He completed at least six innings in 22 of his outings, and recorded quality starts in 15 of those games. On the flip side, he surrendered four or more runs in the other seven starts, and had 15 total starts in which he got hit for four or more earned runs.
The former first-round pick finished the year 12-9 with a 4.46 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP while striking out 202 in 193 2/3 innings. His biggest problem was the long ball, which hurt him quite a bit; he gave up a career-high 32 home runs.
While Nola had eight games with eight or more strikeouts, including three double-digit strikeout efforts, he could never seem to string together more than two or three reliable outings in a row. He got hot at the right time, however, finishing the season with a pair of six-plus inning, eight-strikeout efforts to head into the playoffs on a roll.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Nola will be back in a Phillies uniform next season.
No. 1: Zack Wheeler, 5.9 fWAR
Of course Zack Wheeler is the Phillies Cy Young winner. This isn't really a surprise to anyone after the phenomenal year the right-hander had, is it?
Wheeler's 5.9 WAR wasn't only the best among all players on the Phillies but was also the best WAR value among all pitchers in the majors. Yes, even better than the six Cy Young Award finalists between the two leagues. For reference, here are the NL finalists: Zac Gallen (5.2), Logan Webb (4.9), and Blake Snell (4.1).
Anyway, back to Wheeler's 2023. He finished with a 13-6 record, a 3.61 ERA, a 1.08 WHIP and logged 212 strikeouts in 192 regular season innings. He didn't miss a start, taking the ball 32 times, throwing 21 quality starts, and pitching seven-plus innings nine times.
He hit his stride shortly following the All-Star break, with his most dominant stretch coming from July 22 to Sept. 6. He pitched to a 2.45 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP, and struck out 66 hitters in 58 2/3 innings over nine games — eight of which were quality starts.
Aside from the excellent on-field results, his advanced stats show that Wheeler could have fared even better this season if he had a little better luck. He had the 10th-highest BABIP among qualified pitchers in the National League, and his xERA was 3.21, while he carried a 3.15 FIP.
The 33-year-old wrapped up his fourth season in red pinstripes by winning his first Gold Glove Award.
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