As mentioned in the Rookie of the Year article, the 2024 DTBL Draft class was not particularly loaded with can’t miss rookies and prospects. But Elly De La Cruz wasn’t the only near certain superstar taken in the first round. The Moonshiners went down a somewhat unconventional path by using the third overall pick on a non-DTBL rookie. Tarik Skubal debuted for the Kings in 2022 and was having a solid first season in the league before an elbow injury led him to Tommy John surgery, missing the final two months of that season. Since he was likely to miss most of 2023 as well, he was then removed from the league roster for that campaign. An impressive return late in ’23 made him a highly coveted player entering this season. The Moonshiners decision to grab him early paid off in a big way. Tarik Skubal is the unanimous choice as the 2024 DTBL Cy Young award winner.
While Skubal had significant prospect pedigree leading up to his MLB debut with the Tigers in 2020, his first couple seasons in the big leagues were fairly pedestrian. It wasn’t until the fateful 2022 campaign that he really started to put things together. With a hat tip to modern medical advancements, he has returned from Tommy John surgery as an even better pitcher than he was pre-surgery. He was the most dominant pitcher in baseball in 2024, by a comfortable margin. The Moonshiners southpaw led all pitchers with 228 strikeouts, 18 wins and 14.8 Pitching PAR. His 2.39 ERA ranked second, just .01 point behind Chris Sale. His 0.92 WHIP was also second in the league, trailing only Logan Gilbert among qualified pitchers. Few pitchers in recent years have combined such impressive strikeout and walk rates. Skubal struck out over 30% of the batters he faced while walking fewer than 5%, for a very impressive 6.5 K/BB ratio.
Skubal was drafted by the Kings in the eighth round of the 2022 draft. While not initially expected to be a core piece of that Kings rotation, he did wind up throwing 95 very quality innings for them before succumbing to an elbow injury. Despite his very successful debut season, the Kings did not seriously consider keeping him since he was expected to miss most of the 2023 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Perhaps a questionable decision in retrospect, but he was completely dropped from the league roster for that ’23 campaign anyway. What is not questionable was the Moonshiners decision to pick him in this year’s draft. He immediately revitalized a pitching staff that struggled to defend their league championship the year prior. The Moonshiners finished with 37.5 pitching points, their most since 2020. That figure ranked second in the league this year, with Skubal leading the team in all relevant categories and having more than double the Pitching PAR total of all his teammates.
Not that he was undeserving of the honor, but it was a tad surprising that Skubal won this award unanimously since there were several other pitchers who had elite seasons. The top two competitors were a pair of National League pitchers who fought for that league’s Cy Young honor. We had a slightly different voting result in this league though. Kings veteran Zack Wheeler had the best season of his impressive career. He had nearly identical numbers to Skubal in every category except with a slightly worse ERA and WHIP and two fewer wins. While Skubal received all ten of the first place votes, Wheeler got six of the second place nods and the other four were for third place, totaling 62 points. Just behind him is Mavericks southpaw Chris Sale, who edged out Wheeler for the NL Cy Young award. This season, Sale reestablished himself as one of the best pitchers in the league, leading the league with a 2.38 ERA. While the Mavericks offense stole all the headlines, it was Sale who led the pitching staff to a convincing league championship. Sale received four second place votes and a total of 56 points, six behind Wheeler. It is his highest Cy Young finish since placing second in 2017. As usual, starting pitchers were the favorites among Cy Young voters, but this was truly the year of the reliever. Choppers closer Emmanuel Clase had one of the best seasons for a reliever in league history. His 47 saves with an 0.61 ERA and 0.66 WHIP were truly dominant numbers. His 10.8 Pitching PAR was the best for a reliever in years that have been calculated to date (since 2005). If a relief pitcher was ever to win the Cy Young award again, this probably would have been the year. Instead, Clase did not receive any first or second place votes. His 21 total points comfortably ranked fourth though. Rounding out the top five is another Choppers pitcher, righty Logan Gibert. Gilbert led the DTBL with 208 innings pitched and an 0.89 WHIP. While not really his fault, the fact that he only recorded nine wins probably sabotaged his chances of winning this award. He has had three straight seasons of elite pitching for the Choppers. He received 14 points in the Cy Young vote. Interestingly, there were nine players who received Cy Young votes, the same as last year. But not one player on that list was among the group from last year. Complete turnaround among the top pitchers in the league.
Click here to view the full voting results.
Two unanimous decisions for the DTBL awards so far. For MVP, there is a clear favorite as well except there were a couple guys who had historically strong seasons, so we’ll see who comes out on top. Look for the MVP announcement sometime in the next couple days.