Arizona Diamondbacks star Zac Gallen is disappointed he didn’t make the list of National League finalists for the 2022 Cy Young award.
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Julio Urias, Miami Marlins star Sandy Alcantara, and the Atlanta Braves’ Max Fried will be in contention for the most prestigious pitching award.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday.
But back to Gallen.
He had an amazing year, with a 2.54 ERA in 184 innings with a D-Backs team that never really competed for a playoff spot.
He also struck out 9.39 hitters per each nine innings and established the new franchise record for most consecutive scoreless innings.
He wasn’t considered a Cy Young finalist.
However, he was nominated for the Outstanding Pitcher Award given away by MLB players: the Players’ Choice awards.
“Players’ choice award finalist but not a Cy Young finalist…” he tweeted, with a thinking emoji.
Players’ choice award finalist but not a Cy Young finalist… 🤔 https://t.co/eEQSCr9Qqw
— Zac Gallen (@zacgallen23) November 12, 2022
Gallen seems to think he deserved to be among the three men in contention to win the Cy Young award.
Gallen’s Time Will Come Eventually
You can see it’s a meaningful award for him.
The only difference between MLB’s list of Cy Young finalists and the MLB Players’ one is that Fried is in the former instead of him.
Now, Fried had a very solid season as well, with a 2.48 ERA in 185.1 frames.
He had 5.0 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) to Gallen’s 4.3.
Fried’s Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) was 2.70, considerably better than Gallen’s 3.05 mark.
All things considered, Gallen was amazing in 2022 but Fried was just slightly better.
Gallen is young and talented, so his time to be among the finalists and, why not, win it might eventually come.
For now, he will have to settle for an appearance among the Players’ Choice finalists.
In both cases, Alcantara is considered the favorite to win.
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