Phillies Ace Nola is Named Cy Young “Finalist”

Last season, we engaged in much debate on 97.3 ESPN about who the 2018 National League Cy Young award winner would be.  As it has been expected, the award will belong to the National League East in 2018.  Phillies ace Aaron Nola, Mets ace Jacob deGrom and Nationals ace Max Scherzer were named "finalists" for the award on Monday.

First, it's important to note that being a "finalist" does not mean that anything can happen between now and the announcement of the award that could change the results of the voting.  The voting is done, and those named are among the top three vote getters.  The "finalists" are put forth to build excitement about the award in advance of the announcement, which takes place on Wednesday, November 14.

Nola is not generally considered the frontrunner for the award. That is generally thought to be deGrom, who led the league with a 1.70 earned run average.  Despite being just one game over the .500 mark with a 10-9 record, deGrom set a record with 29 consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer.

Nola tied deGrom for WAR, but his ERA was a distant second in the league at 2.37.

Third in ERA was Scherzer at 2.53.  But Scherzer led the league in innings and hit the 300 mark for strikeouts. He could be second to deGrom when the votes are ultimately tallied.

The Phillies did not make any other finalists, and missed out on the Rawlings Gold Glove awards this past weekend.