For years, Chris Sale was widely regarded by baseball insiders as the best active pitcher to never win a Cy Young Award. That label can now be transferred to Zack Wheeler. Sale finally received the top pitching honor Wednesday night in voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

And all the Braves lefty needed to do was to become the ninth pitcher in 84 years to lead the National League in wins (18), ERA (2. 38), and strikeouts (225). » READ MORE: How The Inquirer’s Scott Lauber voted for the Cy Young AwardA winner of the “pitching triple crown” has never not won the Cy Young.

Sale’s historic candidacy also got a boost from his unlikely comeback, at age 35, after four injury-marred seasons with the Red Sox. He amassed 177⅔ innings, more than his total from the last four seasons combined (151). So, even though Sale was unable to pitch after Sept.

19 because of back spasms and missed his last three starts, including the Braves’ must-win finale of a doubleheader to clinch a playoff spot on the final day of the season, most voters weren’t dissuaded. Sale got 26 of 30 first-place votes to defeat Wheeler, the Phillies’ ace, by a 198-130 overall margin. Pirates phenom Paul Skenes, named NL Rookie of the Year earlier in the week, finished third with 53 points.

The Padres’ Dylan Cease (45) and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga (38) rounded out the top five. (Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez finished 10th by picking up two fifth-place votes; Aaron Nola tied for 11th after getting one fifth-place vote. )It marked the second time in four years that Wheeler was the Cy Young runner-up.

In 2021, he lost in a razor-thin vote to Corbin Burnes despite pitching 46⅓ more innings than the then-Brewers ace. Wheeler also finished sixth in the Cy Young voting in 2023. Wheeler, 34, outworked Sale by 22⅓ innings.

In addition to a 2. 57 ERA and 224 strikeouts, he led the league in WHIP (0. 955), quality starts (26) and opponents’ batting average (.

192), and closed the season with 11 starts of at least six innings and no more than two runs, the longest such streak by a Phillies pitcher since 1893, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs. In spring training, Wheeler outlined every ace’s standard personal goals: 200 innings, 200 strikeouts. But he also openly admitted that he was aiming to win the Cy Young.

He even developed a splitter to help him better neutralize left-handed hitters. It worked. He held lefties to a .

200 average with his new pitch and . 222 overall, compared to a . 261 mark without it in 2023.

» READ MORE: The last great Phillies righty broke down at age 35 and retired at 36. Why the team believes Zack Wheeler will stay elite as he begins a three-year extension. “I did the best I could,” Wheeler said in what felt like a concession speech Sept.

28 after his final regular-season start in Washington. “Chris had a really good year also. He’s deserving of it, for sure.

It was pretty cool to see him come back from missing the past four years. Good for him. Happy to see him be back to Chris Sale.

It’s pretty cool. ”The momentum for Sale was unstoppable, especially as he rolled to a 1. 86 ERA in 11 starts after the All-Star break.

Acquired from the Red Sox in an offseason trade for second baseman Vaughn Grissom, Sale anchored the Braves’ rotation, which lost ace Spencer Strider to season-ending elbow surgery in April and missed Max Fried and Reynaldo López for brief stretches. In addition to the triple crown categories, Sale led the NL in fielding independent pitching (2. 09) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.

4). Sale was 74% better than league average pitchers, based on ERA+; Wheeler, by comparison, was 58% better. Sale also had an edge, 6.

4 to 5. 4, in the FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement. “There’s a lot of things he’s doing that are very special in my book,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters in September.

“If you’re with him every day and you’re watching these games and how he competes, what he’s done for us, it’s a Cy Young season. He’s been huge for us, that’s for sure. Especially when Spencer goes down.

We needed somebody to step up, and he sure did. ”Over seven seasons, from 2012 to 2018, Sale racked up the second-most strikeouts and ranked fourth among starting pitchers (minimum 75 starts) in ERA behind Clayton Kershaw, the late José Fernández, and Jacob deGrom. » READ MORE: Where does Zack Wheeler rank among the best free-agent signings in Phillies historySale received Cy Young votes each season, finishing in the top five six times.

He came in second in 2017, third in 2014, fourth in 2015 and 2018, and fifth in 2013 and 2016. It seemed inevitable that Sale would eventually win the elusive award. But after throwing the clinching pitch of the 2018 World Series for the Red Sox, his body began breaking down.

He missed the 2020 season after Tommy John elbow surgery and made only two starts in 2022 because of a rib-cage stress fracture, broken pinkie finger, and broken right wrist. The road back was seemingly never-ending. At last, it was Sale’s turn.

Someday, maybe Wheeler will get his. This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.