Philadelphia Phillies Ace Has To Overcome Major Obstacle To Win First Cy Young Award

The Philadelphia Phillies ace is running out of time to win his first Cy Young Award.

Mar 4, 2025; Clearwater, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) throws a pitch against the New York Yankees in the second inning during spring training at BayCare Ballpark. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Few players in professional sports deserve to win a regular season award more than Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler.

He began to develop into a quality pitcher towards the end of his tenure with the New York Mets in 2018, but he's been one of baseball's best since joining the Phillies in 2020.

He's finished with a sub 3.00 ERA in four of his five years in Philadelphia, while starting 32 games in three of the last four. Despite being one of the best pitchers in the game the last half decade, he's never won a Cy Young Award heading into his age-35 season.

He's been the runner-up twice, including last year to Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale, who finally won the award himself for the first time.

Wheeler had an excellent 2024 campaign, but Sale had a more wins, a lower ERA, a higher ERA+ and a better bWAR. In fact, Sale led the league in each of those categories, including strikeouts to secure the National League triple crown.

Sale should have won last year's award based on that.

But Wheeler should have been the victor in 2021, where he lost a very close race to Milwaukee Brewers' pitcher Corbin Burnes.

Wheeler's 7.5 bWAR led the league while Burnes had a 5.3 mark.

WAR is not the only statistic that matters when measuring a player's performance or on-field value, but it is the gold standard, and there was a massive gap between Wheeler and Burnes in 2021.

Team success no doubt played a factor in voters' minds, as the Brewers won 95 games while the Phillies missed the playoffs behind an 82-80 record.

Still, it's reasonable to say Wheeler got robbed of a legacy-making Cy Young award win in 2021.

What's worse is 2025 might be Wheeler's last real shot at finally bringing home the top accolade for starting pitchers.

To this point, he's shown no signs of drop off despite turning 35 in May, but age-related decline is inevitable for everyone, and Wheeler's extended prime is at least nearing it's end.

But age isn't his biggest obstacle to winning his first Cy Young.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes is.

There are other NL Cy Young contenders on playoff-caliber teams, but Skenes is the sort of ace who usually only exists in video games.

He pairs an upper-90's fastball with an assortment of breaking balls that one has to see to believe.

Skenes finished third in the NL Cy Young Award vote in 2024, while simultaneously winning the NL Rookie of the Year. He finished with an 11-3 record, an 1.96 ERA, 0.947 WHIP and a 5.9 bWAR in 23 starts.

His rookie-year stats almost look made up.

Barring a career-derailing injury, the Pirates ace is going to win the Cy Young Award in his career, if not a few of them.

Team success may stand in his way this year like it did for Wheeler back in 2021, which is the biggest advantage the Phillies ace has over Pittsburgh's phenom.

Ultimately, the arrival of Skenes makes this year the best shot Wheeler has to finally take home the elusive award he deserves.

Even if the Pirates young ace out produces the Philadelphia veteran, perhaps awards voters will pay back Wheeler for his snub in 2021.

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