Carlos Rodón is not a Cy Young finalist, for reasons

Well, it’s official. San Francisco Giants lefty Carlos Rodón will not be winning the 2022 National League Cy Young Award. MLB released the Cy Young finalists on Monday, which is a silly task since they already know who won and are just slow-playing it.

Rodón was not among the three finalists, meaning, at best, that he’ll finish in fourth place for the award.

The finalists were Miami Marlins righty Sandy Alcántara, Atlanta Braves lefty Max Fried, and Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Julio Urías.

Urías is the most questionable inclusion, and I’m fascinated to see how the voting broke down when MLB releases the detailed votes. The advanced metrics are not sold on Urías as having had a particularly notable season, but his ERA is ridiculous. On the one hand, we’ve moved past ERA as being a good indicator of a pitcher’s ability. On the other hand ... run prevention is still the name of the game, and even if it’s achieved in an unsustainable manner, it’s worth celebrating.

Here’s how the three finalists, and Rodón, stacked up among NL pitchers in key categories.

fWAR
Rodón — 2nd (6.2)
Alcántara — 3rd (5.7)
Fried — 4th (5.0)
Urías — 13th (3.2)

rWAR
Alcántara — 1st (8.1)
Fried — 3rd (5.9)
Rodón — 4th (5.4)
Urías — 8th (4.9)

ERA
Urías — 1st (2.16)
Alcántara — 2nd (2.28)
Fried — 3rd (2.48)
Rodón — 6th (2.88)

FIP
Rodón — 1st (2.25)
Fried — 3rd (2.70)
Alcántara — 4th (2.99)
Urías — 16th (3.71)

Strikeouts per 9 innings
Rodón — 1st (11.98)
Urías — 10th (8.54)
Fried — 12th (8.26)
Alcántara — 13th (8.15)

It would certainly seem like, after moving more towards advanced analytics, that voters have reverted to just putting pitchers back in order of ERA.

And while we’re pouring one out for Rodón, pour one out for Philadelphia Phillies righty Aaron Nola, who led the league in fWAR and was second in rWAR.

Anyway, Rodón had the best regular season by a Giants pitcher since Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young Award, and don’t let voters tell you otherwise.