Miami Marlins pitcher nominated for an award

The Miami Marlins are dealing with the fall-out of Kim Ng leaving the team. Today, we wrote about some of the top no-hitters in team history and now here's more pitching news. Starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo has been nominated for the National League Gold Glove award for pitchers. He's going up against two division rival pitchers for the award. Can he win the award?

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo has been nominated for the National League Gold Glove award for pitchers.

Jesus Luzardo had a great season, producing a 3.63 ERA/3.55 FIP, with 10.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 32 games and 178.2 innings pitched. This was his career inning high and the second season in a row that he pitched for over 100 innings in a season. Considering his past reputation as being injury-prone, this is great news and hopefully promising going forward.

Luzardo did a great job this season and was worth 4.0 WAR, and I'm confident that he can take further steps forward next season. The fact that he's also good at defending is an added bonus. Luzardo's competition is coming from the division rivals the Philadelphia Phillies.

Zack Wheeler had a 3.61 ERA/3.15 FIP, with 9.9 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 with 32 games and 192.0 innings pitched. Philly's ace was worth 4.2 WAR this season, and has continued his impressive season into the playoffs. He could've even done better, based on his FIP.

Taijuan Walker is the other Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher competing with Jesus Luzardo. Walker produced a 4.38 ERA/4.54 FIP, with 7.2 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 31 games and 172.2 innings pitched. Just like Wheeler and Luzardo, Walker is a pretty good defender as well. He was worth 2.5 WAR for his performance this season.

Looking at them strictly for their pitching performance, Zack Wheeler is the winner. Not a dominant winner, but a winner nevertheless. Of course this isn't about their pitching, but about their defense, and that's harder to figure out (at least in my opinion). That said, Jesus Luzardo has a .903 Fld%; Wheeler has a .969 Fld% and Walker has a 1.000 Fld%.