It has happened again to Zack Wheeler. After being robbed in 2021, the Philadelphia Phillies ace starting pitcher was again a finalist for the 2024 National League Cy Young Award but came away empty-handed when the winner was announced on Wednesday evening.
Wheeler and Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes lost out to Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale, who racked up 26 first-place votes and 198 total points. Wheeler finished second in the voting, with four first-place votes and 130 total points, while Skenes finished third with 53 points.
Zack Wheeler loses NL Cy Young Award to Chris Sale after another award-worthy season
Despite the fact that almost everyone had Sale picked as the Cy Young favorite beforehand, it still stings for Phillies fans who watched Wheeler put together another masterful season on the mound.
The 34-year-old right-hander went 16-7 in 32 starts and topped Sale in innings pitched, reaching the 200-inning plateau — a feat seen in the majors less each season and only accomplished by four pitchers this year — for the second time in his career. His 2.57 ERA was second among qualified starters to Sale's 2.38 (Skenes technically had the lowest ERA at 1.96, but the Pirates held him to 133 innings). Wheeler also trailed the Braves lefty by one strikeout, 225 to 224.
"Wheeler’s workload should matter, especially as much as Wheeler matched Sale in other metrics," MLB.com pointed out. "Sale won only two more games than Wheeler. His ERA was only 0.19 points better. He had only one more strikeout."
Wheeler had the second-highest fWAR in the NL at 5.4, again behind Sale's 6.4. Although Baseball Reference's version of WAR shows a tighter race, with Sale's 6.2 bWAR barely edging out Wheeler's 6.1 bWAR.
The Phillies veteran starter dominated the NL and the majors in quality starts (six-plus innings with three earned runs or less) with 26. The next highest in the league was teammate Aaron Nola with 20. Sale registered 18.
Wheeler also bested Sale in WHIP (0.96 to 1.01), opponents' batting average (.192 to .215), on-base percentage (.253 to .269), OPS (.581 to .588) and wOBA (.256 to .260).
Zack Wheeler’s 2024 Cy Young Award Resume. pic.twitter.com/G7hVMIxMsh
— PhilliesNotes (@PhilliesNotes) September 29, 2024
The Phillies and the fans know how good Zack Wheeler is
Teammate Bryce Harper sang Wheeler's praises late in the year after Wheeler dominated the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers in his third-to-last start of the regular season.
"He’s a Cy Young, I mean it's not even a question now," Harper said in his post-game interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia on Sept. 17. "Just the way he's throwing, the way he's been doing it all year long. He deserves it. He deserved it three years ago when they robbed him of it. He deserves it this year, no doubt."
The "three years ago" Harper was referring to was Wheeler's 2021 NL Cy Young loss to Corbin Burnes, who was then with the Brewers. Wheeler had the same number of first-place votes (12) as Burnes that year but lost that race by 10 points despite throwing 46 1/3 more innings.
Even though it's another agonizing runner-up finish for Wheeler, the Phillies and the fans know exactly what kind of Cy Young-caliber stud they have anchoring their rotation heading into 2025.