Aaron Nola finishes 4th in NL Cy Young Award voting

Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara became the first pitcher since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2014 to take home all 30 first place votes to win the National League Cy Young Award.

While he was not named one of three NL finalists, Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola did quite well in the voting.

Nola finished fourth with 48 total points, including five second-place votes and six third-place votes. He finished ahead of the likes of Zac Gallen, Carlos Rodón and Corbin Burnes. The two voting members of the Philadelphia chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Ryan Fagan of The Sporting News and Jayson Stark of The Athletic, each gave Nola a fifth-place vote.

The Braves’ Max Fried finished second with 72 points and the Dodgers’ Julio Urias finished third with 66 points.

This marks the third year in which Nola has received at least one Cy Young Award vote. He finished third behind Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in 2018 and seventh in 2020.

Nola went 11-13 with a 3.25 ERA over 32 starts in 2022. A decade ago, his record and ERA would not have made him a viable candidate for the award, but times have changed and voters are more likely to take into account advanced stats and other numbers that prove a pitcher’s value.

Nola finished second behind Alcantara in innings pitched among NL pitchers with 205. He also posted a 2.58 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), which was second in the NL behind Rodón.

Nola also had the highest strikeout to walk ratio (8.10) in the NL. Just to give an idea of how dominant Nola was in that category, Yu Darvish finished second with a 5.32 SO/BB. Kevin Gausman’s 7.32 SO/BB was good for second in MLB.

The 29-year-old is under contract for one more season with the Phillies. The club picked up his $16 million team option for 2023.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was asked on Wednesday about the possibility of signing Nola to a second contract extension. He said: “… we would love to have Aaron in the organization for a long time.”

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