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?