Guardians Parker Messick Made MLB History, Despite Award Losses

Parker Messick was in the running for several of MLB’s major awards when the finalists were announced earlier this month.

The Cleveland Guardians’ first-year pitcher was named a finalist for both Rookie of the Year and Cy Young. He even received votes for American League MVP, too. Unfortunately, even though he was in contention for a handful of awards, Messick didn’t take home any hardware.

That doesn’t take away from how incredible a season that Messick had, and the Guardians pitcher didn’t come out of award season completely empty-handed, though, because he did end up making MLB history with the votes that he received.

Messick became just the sixth rookie in MLB history to finish top-three in the Cy Young voting.

The last two players to accomplish this feat were Pittsburgh Pirates superstar Paul Skenes, who finished third in the National League voting in 2024. The other was the late Jose Fernandez, who was third in the voting in the 2013 National League race.

That’s undeniably elite company Messick is now joining.

Those stats back up this historic accomplishment, too. Messick finished his rookie season with a 2.56 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, with a strikeout rate of 25.8 percent and a walk rate of just 6.6 percent, each ranking well above the league average.

It’s a story that’s been told numerous times up to this point, but the fact that Messick is even in this position, in contention for several of MLB’s most prestigious awards, and now making baseball history, was simply a dream in March.

Messick didn’t have a guaranteed spot on the roster coming out of spring training, but earned a spot in the Opening Day rotation after an impressive training camp.

Cy Young was always going ot be a long shot for Messick to win, considering the incredible season that New York Yankees ace Cam Schlittler had, but there definitely was a case for the Guardians pitcher to win Rookie of the Year over Detroit Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle.

Winning either of the awards would have been nice, but looking more at the group Messick joined, it certainly looks like he’s still in store for an incredible career.

Some of the other players on the list Messick joined, such as Skenes and Fernando Valenzuela, mean that Cleveland has a superstar pitcher in its rotation for years to come.