The 25 Best MLB Pitchers Since 1990 to Never Win a Cy Young Award | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
David Craig 20. RHP José Rijo
Best Finish: 4th in 1991
Rijo had a short peak in the big leagues, and he only pitched 1,880 innings in his career, but in the early 1990s he was as good as any pitcher in baseball. Over his first seven seasons in Cincinnati, he had a 2.63 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 1,139 strikeouts in 1,315 innings, and he won World Series MVP in 1990 when he led the underdog Reds to victory over the heavily-favored Oakland Athletics.
19. LHP Jimmy Key
Best Finish: 2nd in 1987 and 1994
Key enjoyed an underrated 15-year career spent mostly with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, and he took turns as the ace of the staff with both franchises. He led the AL in ERA (2.76) and WHIP (1.06) in 1987 when he was runner-up to Roger Clemens in Cy Young voting, and he went 17-4 with a 3.27 ERA over 25 starts during the strike-shortened 1994 season in his second year with the Yankees to finish second to David Cone in the balloting.
18. RHP Josh Beckett
Best Finish: 2nd in 2007
The No. 2 overall pick in the 1999 draft and the No. 1 prospect in baseball at the start of the 2002 season, Beckett dealt with some injuries and inconsistency in his career, but at his best he lived up to the hype as a true staff ace. He went 20-7 with a 3.27 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 194 strikeouts in 200.2 innings in 2007 to trail only CC Sabathia in the AL Cy Young race. While he never won a Cy Young, the postseason star does have 2003 World Series MVP and 2007 ALCS MVP on his resume.
17. LHP Cole Hamels
Best Finish: 5th in 2011
Hamels looked like a lock to win Cy Young honors at some point in his career after he took home NLCS and World Series MVP honors as a 24-year-old in 2008. He did develop into a legitimate frontline starter in some stacked Philadelphia rotations, and he finished in the top 10 in voting four times in 10 seasons with the Phillies, but he never came in higher than fifth in the balloting.
16. LHP David Wells
Best Finish: 3rd in 1998 and 2000
A burly left-hander who began his career as a reliever/swingman on those terrific Toronto Blue Jays teams of the early 1990s, Wells eventually claimed a full-time spot in the rotation and later etched his name in the history books with a perfect game as a member of the New York Yankees. His 1998 (18-4, 3.49 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 214.1 IP) and 2000 (20-8, 4.11 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 229.2 IP) seasons both earned him a third-place finish in AL voting, and he continued to pitch well into his mid-40s.