Logan Webb named a Cy Young finalist

Logan Webb is more than just the face and leader of the San Francisco Giants, and he’s more than just the last Giants pitcher to hit a home run. He’s also a Cy Young Award finalist.

A few years ago, MLB switched from announcing award winners out of the blue to announcing finalists for each award. It adds a little bit of extra drama, but more importantly, gives us more opportunity to celebrate more players.

On Monday those finalists were announced, and Webb was named one of the three candidates to win the National League Cy Young Award, alongside fellow NL West aces Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres.

Webb is incredibly deserving of the honor even if, as Bryan wrote about in September, it’s a little surprising that voters would recognize that. And even if Webb, as the season wound to a close, was quick to point out that winning a Cy Young didn’t mean much to him relative to winning games.

This is Webb’s second season in which he’s earned Cy Young votes, after finishing 11th for the award last year, when his teammate Carlos Rodón finished sixth. Somewhat remarkably, it’s the first time the Giants have had a top-three finisher since Tim Lincecum won the award back in 2009.

If internet sleuths know anything, though, Webb will not win the award. Because it was pointed out that in since-deleted tweets, the award finalists were not listed in alphabetical order, which suggests they were possibly (and accidentally) sent out in voting order, which would have Webb finishing third. We’ll see though.

With that said, here’s how Webb stacks up against Gallen and Snell, the latter of whom is a free agent and could be a Giants target.

Record: Gallen (17-9), Snell (14-9), Webb (11-13)
ERA: Snell (2.25), Webb (3.25), Gallen (3.47)
FIP: Webb (3.16), Gallen (3.27), Snell (3.44)
Innings: Webb (216), Gallen (210), Snell (180)
Strikeouts/9: Snell (11.7), Gallen (9.4), Webb (8.1)
Walks/9: Webb (1.3), Gallen (2.0), Snell (5.0)
fWAR: Gallen (5.2), Webb (4.9), Snell (4.1)
rWAR: Snell (6.0), Webb (5.6), Gallen (4.4)

As for the rest of the awards, the American League Cy Young candidates are Brandon Crawford’s brother-in-law Gerrit Cole (New York Yankees), former Giant and Webb’s close friend Kevin Gausman (Toronto Blue Jays), and potential free agent target Sonny Gray (Minnesota Twins). The MVP candidates in the National League are a pair of Los Angeles Dodgers, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, as well as Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta Braves). In the American League, the presumed winner is future Giant Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Angels), while the other finalists are the middle infielders from the new-champion Texas Rangers, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.

Speaking of those Rangers, their skipper — Giants legend Bruce Bochy — is a finalist for AL Manager of the Year, along with Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay Rays) and Brandon Hyde (Baltimore Orioles). In the NL it’s the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, Craig Counsell (Milwaukee Brewers), Skip Schumacher (Miami Marlins), and Brian Snitker (Braves).

The NL Rookie of the Year finalists are Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks), James Outman (Dodgers), and Kodai Senga (New York Mets), while the AL finalists are Tanner Bibee (Cleveland Guardians), Triston Casas (Boston Red Sox), and Gunnar Henderson (Orioles).

In summation, Logan Webb rules, and the Giants should sign or trade for all of the other players on these lists.