Marlins division rival pitcher could win the Cy Young award

The NL Cy Young award will soon be awarded and Miami Marlins rivals may see their own win it. I already looked at the same situation in the NL MVP award. It just so happens that 2022 NL Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara is coming back next season!

Miami Marlins rival ace can win the NL Cy Young award.

We remember when Sandy Alcantara brought the NL Cy Young award home to the Miami Marlins. That was a great moment for us. On the flip side, we now have to watch a rival team's ace win the award instead. I'm talking about two of them. One of them is Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. The other two candidates are Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves.

Who should win the award? Let's start with Zack Wheeler. He was worth 6.1 WAR this season. He pitched to a 2.57 ERA/3.13 FIP, with 10.1 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 32 games and 200.0 innings pitched. This was an impressive performance and does seem worth of the NL Cy Young award.

Paul Skenes was worth 5.9 WAR. He pitched to an amazing 1.96 ERA/2.45 FIP, with 11.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 23 games and 133.0 innings pitched. He didn't pitch as many innings as Wheeler, but his WAR was only 0.2 points worse. You can argue that the workload is more important, but it's hard to overlook that sparkling ERA.

Chris Sale made one amazing comeback. He was worth 6.2 WAR. The highest of the three. He pitched to a 2.38 ERA/2.09 FIP, with 11.4 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 29 games and 177.2 innings pitched. Sale easily had the best season of the three. He had the highest WAR of the three and did it in less innings than Zack Wheeler. Paul Skenes pitched in the least innings of the three.

If it was up to me, I'd give it to Chris Sale. Who will win? I suspect that Skenes will have to settle for the NL Rookie of the Year award. Sale is the likely winner.