2021 Midseason Awards: Cy Young

Midseason Awards: Race behind deGrom

This one is in the bag for Jacob deGrom, so we’re going to approach this a bit differently. Since it’s the 33-year-old righty’s award to lose, let’s discuss a couple of candidates with a slight chance of winning it.

First, there’s deGrom’s divisional rival and former teammate Zack Wheeler. This season, Wheeler has been deGrom-esque (too soon?). In fact, he trails only deGrom in fWAR 4.8 to 4.2 and FIP 0.99 to 2.28. 

In some areas, the Phillies ace has even bested the Mets legend. He’s demonstrated more longevity than any pitcher this season and has an MLB-leading 114 innings pitched. As a result, Wheeler also has the most strikeouts (139) of any pitcher, three more than deGrom.

Then, there’s San Francisco Giants starter Kevin Gausman, who is having by far the best season of his career. This season, the 30-year-old pitcher is posting career highs in:

• Win Percentage (.800)
• ERA (1.68)
• FIP (2.67)
• WHIP (0.807)

But is it enough to overtake Zack Wheeler? His last four starts would point in the negative. In that time span, he has a 1-2 record and a 3.00 ERA. As a result, he falls behind Wheeler and deGrom in the NL Cy Young race.

Midseason NL Cy Young Runner Up: Zack Wheeler