Unsurprisingly, Jacob Misiorowski was the winner of the NL Cy Young award, getting all thirty first-place votes. But there was some love for Arizona further down the ballot, with Eduardo Rodriguez getting two fifth-place votes, from Tyler Kepner of the Athletic, and Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. E-Rod is the first D-back to be mentioned since 2023, and the first apart from Zac Gallen since 2018. Here are the Diamondbacks to receive votes in the NL Cy Young balloting over the past twenty
years, since Brandon Webb was the last Diamondback to take home the award.
- 2026: Eduardo Rodriguez – 7th, 2 points
- 2023: Zac Gallen – 3rd, 68 points
- 2022: Zac Gallen – 5th, 45 points
- 2020: Zac Gallen – =9th, 2 points
- 2018: Patrick Corbin – 5th, 23 points
- 2017: Zack Greinke – 4th, 52 points
+ Robbie Ray – 7th, 6 points - 2011: Ian Kennedy – 4th, 76 points
- 2009: Dan Haren – 5th, 1 point
- 2008: Brandon Webb – 2nd, 76 points
- 2007: Brandon Webb – 2nd, 94 points
+ Jose Valverde – =6th, 2 points - 2006: Brandon Webb – 1st, 106 points
This year feels like a Rorschach Test for how the BBWAA evaluate pitchers. Rodriguez did considerably better in the old school metrics. His ERA of 2.89 was fifth among qualified pitchers in the National League, and by wins (16), he only trailed Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies (18). Innings pitched also had E-Rod ranked highly, third in the NL. [Though in a sign of the times, only two pitchers reached even 190 innings. As recently as 2014, twenty-seven pitchers in the NL did] But Rodriguez ranked only seventh by bWAR among pitchers (4.7), and fWAR ranked him all the way down at 12th, on 3.2 wins, likely due to his FIP being a run more than his ERA.
In the old-school era – like when Brandon Webb lost out on Rookie of the Year in 2003 to Dontrelle Willis, I suspect Eduardo would perhaps have made the top three. But W’s and, to a lesser extent, ERA are no longer seen as the definitive measure of pitcher quality. I’m somewhat torn about that. Wins, I get. While good starters will tend to pick up more of them, the offense plays a huge part in that, and is something over which the pitcher has no control. ERA is also dependent on external factors, albeit to a lesser extent, with defense a factor, beyond what is recorded in earned vs. unearned runs. But generating weak contact, leading to “better” defense, feels like a skill too.
Still, there’s no denying Rodriguez had an excellent, and much-needed, season for Arizona. After back-to-back campaigns with an ERA above five, he finally delivered the kind of pitching we expected when Rodriguez was signed to a four-year, $80 million contract in December 2023. Given those two seasons of barely above replacement level production, he’ll probably need the same at 2026 again next year to make this feel like a decent signing. But given where we started, I’d settle for that. At least Rodriguez is likely no longer at risk of becoming a new entry on our Worst Diamondbacks Contracts list.
Brandyn Garcia
It would be remiss not to mention Garcia, who actually received a fourth-place vote as part of the new category, for Reliever of the Year. That vote, from John Shea of the San Francisco Standard, put him tied for 11th. The award going by unanimous acclaim (all thirty first-place votes) to Mason Miller of the Padres. I’d say that mention was fully deserved by the Arizona rookie, who appeared in 57 games for the Diamondbacks and posted a sparkling 1.93 ERA, with a K:BB ratio of 60:11 and a FIP of 2.57. The Josh Naylor trade with the Mariners which brought us Garcia, is looking pretty good about now.
