The top 5 starting pitcher seasons in Miami Marlins history

2. Dontrelle Willis in 2005

You may remember me recently mentioning him in an article on Sunday. In fact it was looking back at his Miami Marlins tenure that inspired this article. Dontrelle Willis almost won the NL Cy Young award with his amazing performance in 2005.

Dontrelle Willis went 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA/2.99 FIP with 6.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 34 games and 236.1 innings. This performance was worth 7.3 WAR.

Unfortunately it was also another “wasted” performance, as the Miami Marlins failed to make the playoffs that season. Dontrelle Willis was also unlucky as he didn’t win the NL Cy Young award, finishing second to St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter, who had a worse ERA (2.83), better FIP (2.90) and less wins (21). Granted pitcher wins don’t matter, but it still feels as if Willis deserved the award more.

This was Dontrelle Willis’s best ever season as two seasons later he found himself pitching for the Detroit Tigers. He never reached those same heights, but for one season he was up there with the best starting pitchers in the Major Leagues. He also shares something with Kevin Brown, he also won the World Series with the Miami Marlins (in 2005 in his case).