Phillies

Aaron Nola Finishes Fourth in NL Cy Young Voting

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 17th, 2022 · 9:54 AM EST

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Let’s get it back to baseball now:

Here's the full @officialBBWAA breakdown. pic.twitter.com/arA9jTshly

— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) November 16, 2022

Alcantara, who is a beast, was a runaway favorite to win this, but good on Nola for grabbing five second place votes and six third place votes.

He finished this season with a 3.25 ERA, second only to the 2.37 he posted during the 2018 All Star season. He had a career-low 1.3 walks per nine and posted a 10.3 SO/9, the latter of which is a very good number. Nola also posted a 0.961 WHIP, also a career best.

It’s funny because Nola seems to straddle the ace/very good line, and therefore rational Aaron Nola takes are hard to find. Anthony thinks he’s an ace, and got laughed at for saying that, then Nola came back with some elite starts at the end of the regular season and early in the playoffs, before coming back down to Earth. Others talk about Nola as if he’s a 4/5 starter on any other team, which is also whack. Bottom line is that if you go into 2023 with Nola, Zack Wheeler, and someone like Carlos Rodon, that’s the best pitching rotation you’ve had in more than 10 years.