Zack Wheeler nominated for Players Choice Award

Zack Wheeler and Chris Sale didn’t get to duel in the postseason, but the two NL East aces are together on yet another short list for a postseason award.

The latest is be the Outstanding Pitcher Award, one of the Players Choice Awards given out by the MLB Players Association. Wheeler is among three National League finalists for the honor, with Cy Young favorite Chris Sale and Rookie of the Year favorite Paul Skenes rounding out the trio.

It’ll be the third postseason award for which Wheeler and Sale are finalists. They were both named NL Gold Glove finalists last week, though they’ll each likely lose out to the Mets’ Luis Severino. A better battle will be over the Cy Young Award, something Wheeler has coveted — quite vocally — since a 2021 snub.

Sale will likely win that one, but perhaps the voting bloc for the Outstanding Pitcher Award — MLB players, who voted on a slew of them in late September — will be likelier to gravitate to the quantity argument and side with Wheeler for his workload. He threw exactly 200 innings while Sale threw 177 2/3, with three fewer starts.

Or maybe, if the award is truly about the most “outstanding” arm, it’ll go to Skenes, who was certainly that in his rookie year. He was only in the big leagues from mid-May on, but he posted a 1.96 ERA and struck out 170 batters across only 133 innings. Skenes threw 100 pitches at triple digits in velocity, more than any other starter in baseball.

Former Phillie Rhys Hoskins was nominated for four Players Choice Awards: Marvin Miller Man of the Year (for leadership), Philanthropist of the Year and NL Comeback Player of the Year.

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