Lucas Giolito Should Win AL Comeback Player Of The Year And It’s Not Even Close

In 2018, there were 57 starting pitchers to qualify for the MLB leaderboard. Here are Lucas Giolito’s rankings in every major pitching stat from 2018. Again out of 57 pitchers.

0.1 fWAR (57th)
6.13 ERA (57th)
5.56 FIP (57th)
5.46 xFIP (57th)
1.48 WHIP (57th)
6.49 K/9 (55th)
4.67 BB/9 (57th)
1.40 HR/9 (48th)
90 BB (57th)
125 K (55th)
166 Hits (31st)
118 ER (57th)
27 HR (48th)
13 Wild Pitches (55th)
15 HBP (t-54th)
173.1 IP (42nd)
1.39 K/BB (57th)
16.1 K% (56th)
1.40 HR/9 (48th)
11.6 BB% (t-57th)
4.5 K-BB% (57th)
.248 Batting Average (t-43rd)

Here are Giolito’s rankings from 2019 out of 61 qualified starters.

5.1 fWAR (10th)
3.41 ERA (19th)
3.43 FIP (13th)
3.66 xFIP (18th)
1.06 WHIP (12th)
11.62 K/9 (5th
2.90 BB/9 (41st)
1.22 HR/9 (33rd)
57 BB (t-39th)
228 K (16th)
131 Hits (2nd)
67 ER (14th)
24 HR (t-29th)
6 Wild Pitches (t-41st)
4 HBP (t-11th)
176.2 IP (37th)
4 K/BB (23rd)
32.3 K% (4th)
1.22 HR/9 (33rd)
8.1 BB% (45th)
24.3 K-BB% (6th)
.203 Batting Average (6th)

Lucas Giolito went from the worst starting pitcher in 2018, to a top-10 pitcher in 2019. Sorry, Jorge Soler and Hunter Pence, but the White Sox ace is the comeback player of the year and it’s not even close.

2019 Players Choice Awards Comeback Player Finalists:

Lucas Giolito, Hunter Pence and Jorge Soler selected by AL Players; Josh Donaldson, Sonny Gray and Hyun-Jin Ryu are NL finalists.

— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) October 14, 2019

And if you don’t think Giolito was one of the best starters in 2019, then you’re disagreeing with the players.

Players Choice Awards — outstanding pitcher nominees: Gerrit Cole, Lucas Giolito and Justin Verlander finalists in the American League and Hyun-Jin Ryu, Mike Soroka and Jacob deGrom in the NL.

— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) October 16, 2019