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.

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