Zac Gallen, the NL CY Young Award Third Place Finalist
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The National League CY Young Award has been announced. The three finalists for the award were Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, San Diego Padres ace Blake Snell, and San Francisco Giants' ace Logan Webb. The votes are in and the winner is Blake Snell. Zac Gallen came in third place, a strong finish. Had Gallen won, he would've been the third D-backs pitcher to win a CY Young behind Brandon Webb who won it once, and Randy Johnson's streak of four in a row from 1999-2002. Still, this is the highest a D-backs' pitcher has finished in the CY Young voting since Webb won it in 2006.
This award is voted on by the BBWAA. The voters of the BBWAA vote totals of the NL CY Young Award were Snell with 28 first-place votes and two second-place votes. Logan Webb came in second with one first-place vote, 17 second-place votes, and a third-place vote. Gallen was third with a lone first-place vote, three second-place votes, and 11 third-place votes. He barely beat out Spencer Strider for third place.
Zac Gallen was a deserving finalist despite enduring a rough second half. Gallen went 17-9 with a 3.47 ERA and his first complete-game shutout among 34 starts. He struck out 220 batters while walking just 47 in 210 innings. His FIP was a strong 3.27 indicating some bad luck in his ERA results. His ERA+ was 125 this year.
Gallen was worth 5.2 Fangraphs WAR and 4.4 Baseball Reference WAR and made his first All-Star team this year. In fact he was named the starter of the All Star game. The 27-year-old ace of the D-backs led the team to the playoffs. He was 7th in ERA, sixth in WHIP (1.12), eighth in hits per 9 innings (8.06), second in innings, third in strikeouts, second in games started, and fifth in strikeout to walk ratio (4.681).
Blake Snell had a league-leading 2.25 ERA on the heels of a dominant second half of the MLB season. He went 14-9 over 180 innings with a league-high 99 walks and 234 strikeouts. His ERA+ was a league-high 182 while his FIP was a strong 3.44. Logan Webb came in third on the heels of his finest MLB season yet in which he threw 216 innings of 3.25 ERA baseball. He struck out 194 and walked a minuscule 31 batters with a 3.16 FIP.
Gallen will look to finish atop the CY Young standings in 2024 as he continues to carry momentum towards the trophy. He finished fifth in 2022 and third in 2023. The pattern of spots to get any higher is to win it all. Plus, as is well known, D-backs pitching coach Brent Strom is absolutely certain that Gallen will win a CY Young some day.