Every MLB Franchise’s Mount Rushmore of Starting Pitchers Since 1990
Every MLB Franchise’s Mount Rushmore of Starting Pitchers Since 19900 of 30
Nolan RyanRich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Dating back to 1990, 27 of Major League Baseball’s 30 franchises have had at least one starting pitcher win a Cy Young award.
Which four aces’ faces spring to mind when you try to create a Mount Rushmore of hurlers for each team, though?
Here’s some of what was considered in selecting each franchise’s big four arms of the past three-plus decades:
Only statistics accumulated while with that franchise count. For instance, the Rangers only get credit for the seasons Nolan Ryan spent on their roster.Only statistics accumulated since 1990 count. This means Ryan was not eligible as a candidate for the Mets, Angels or Astros, having played all of his seasons with those teams from 1966-88.Only statistics accumulated as a starting pitcher count. There weren’t many instances where this was particularly a factor for a viable candidate, but it did hurt Kerry Wood’s case for landing in the Cubs’ quartet.There’s no minimum for the number of innings pitched to be considered, but longevity is a key factor here. That doesn’t mean a pitcher who made 200 starts with a 4.50 ERA will land ahead of one who made 75 starts with a 3.50 ERA. However, let’s just say that despite his unforgettable three-month run with the Brewers in 2008, CC Sabathia wasn’t a very strong candidate with that franchise.Pitchers are eligible to appear on multiple Mount Rushmores, and around a dozen have done so. Roger Clemens takes the cake with four Rushmores.Beyond those criteria, it was really just a matter of deciding who added the most value while with the franchise and who (if still alive and not actively pitching) would be on the short list of people to call to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in the first home game of a World Series.
All references to WAR (wins above replacement) come from FanGraphs, but WAR was far from the only data point considered.
Without further ado, let’s carve some faces into rock, going alphabetically by franchise.
Arizona Diamondbacks1 of 30
Randy JohnsonJonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Arizona’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Randy Johnson (1,623.1 IP, 117-62, 2.84 ERA, 11.4 K/9, 54.1 WAR)
Brandon Webb (1,318.2 IP, 87-62, 3.27 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 29.6 WAR)
Curt Schilling (780.2 IP, 58-28, 3.11 ERA, 10.1 K/9, 25.0 WAR)
Zac Gallen (741.0 IP, 47-34, 3.33 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 15.0 WAR)
Starting things off with a franchise with roots that don’t even go all the way back to 1990, but with no shortage of solid candidates.
The big three of Johnson, Webb and Schilling are no-brainers.
The Big Unit, in particular, was the easiest pick for any team in this entire exercise, reeling off four consecutive NL Cy Youngs from 1999-2002 and playing a massive role in this team’s lone World Series trophy. Johnson tossed two complete-game shutouts that October, going 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA.
Webb’s career was painfully short, but he was maybe the best pitcher in all of baseball from 2006-08. And Schilling was even more dominant in the 2001 postseason than Johnson was, going at least seven innings in all six of his starts (three in the World Series alone) with a 1.12 ERA. He would have won Cy Youngs in 2001 and 2002 were it not for Johnson.
The fourth pick was tough, but Gallen has done enough at this point to edge out a strong list of runners-up. With one year of arbitration eligibility remaining, he will presumably be back with the Diamondbacks in 2025 before what figures to be quite the bidding war next winter.
Toughest Omissions: Zack Greinke, Patrick Corbin, Merrill Kelly, Robbie Ray
Atlanta Braves2 of 30
Greg MadduxSetNumber: X65895 TK1 R3 F6
Atlanta’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Greg Maddux (2,526.2 IP, 194-88, 2.63 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 72.9 WAR)
Tom Glavine (2,976.1 IP, 221-118, 3.28 ERA, 5.7 K/9, 50.7 WAR)
John Smoltz (2,861.2 IP, 192-123, 3.31 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 66.0 WAR)
Tim Hudson (1,572.0 IP, 113-72, 3.56 ERA, 5.7 K/9, 19.6 WAR)
Going from Arizona to Atlanta, it’s back-to-back franchises for which three of the four choices cannot possibly be open to debate.
You must go back to 1972-78 and the Big Red Machine’s Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench to find the most recent MLB big three that can even hold a candle to the trio of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz.
Even without including what Smoltz and Glavine did from 1987-89, those three combined to make 1,234 starts with the Braves from 1990 onward, winning 607 of them. And though they only won one World Series (1995), they were the three-headed foundation of 14 consecutive division titles from 1991-2005, excluding the strike-shortened 1994 campaign with no postseason.
They combined for six Cy Youngs with Atlanta. Maddux won three, Glavine two and Smoltz one.
Hudson’s spot is at least a little debatable compared to those three…but not really. He won 36 more games than any other candidate, and among pitchers who logged at least 600 innings, only Max Fried can boast a better ERA (3.11).
That said, when chiseling this Rushmore, try to do Hudson’s face so that it could be replaced by Spencer Strider’s in a few years, yeah? The young ace isn’t there yet with less than one-fifth as many innings pitched as Hudson, but that will hopefully be a different story by the time his current contract runs out in 2029.
Toughest Omissions: Steve Avery, Kevin Millwood, Julio Teheran, Max Fried
Baltimore Orioles3 of 30
Mike MussinaSporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images
Baltimore’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Mike Mussina (2,009.2 IP, 147-81, 3.53 ERA, 6.9 K/9, 46.7 WAR)
Scott Erickson (1,284.0 IP, 79-68, 4.74 ERA, 4.9 K/9, 18.8 WAR)
Érik Bédard (653.1 IP, 40-34, 3.84 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 15.4 WAR)
Ben McDonald (916.0 IP, 57-53, 3.89 ERA, 6.2 K/9, 13.3 WAR)
Some teams have at least half-a-dozen pitchers who would have been strong candidates for just about any of the 30 Mount Rushmores.
Others had us scraping the bottom of the barrel in a hurry.
Baltimore falls into the latter camp—aside from Mussina, of course.
He was fantastic for his decade with the O’s, never winning a Cy Young but receiving votes in seven of those seasons. As far as FanGraphs WAR is concerned, Moose was responsible for seven of the eight most valuable seasons by a Baltimore pitcher in the past 35 years.
Erickson was the only other pitcher to make an appearance in that top-eight for what was an impressive 1997 campaign. He, Mussina and Jimmy Key were all huge for that 98-win season, with Erickson tossing eight shutout innings in Game 1 of the ALCS against Cleveland.
Bédard’s run with the Orioles wasn’t particularly long, but he had quite the stretch in 2006-07 before they traded him to Seattle for five players, including Adam Jones.
McDonald was Baltimore’s No. 1 overall pick in 1989, and he gave them a few solid years, peaking in 1993 with a 3.39 ERA in 220.1 IP.
Toughest Omissions: Sidney Ponson, Kevin Gausman, Wei-Yin Chen, Kyle Bradish
Boston Red Sox 4 of 30
Pedro MartinezSteve Grayson/WireImage
Boston’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Pedro MartÃnez (1,378.2 IP, 116-37, 2.52 ERA, 10.9 K/9, 51.9 WAR)
Roger Clemens (1,491.1 IP, 97-66, 3.05 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 41.3 WAR)
Tim Wakefield (2,698.1 IP, 177-154, 4.51 ERA, 6.0 K/9, 25.2 WAR)
Jon Lester (1,517.1 IP, 110-63, 3.65 ERA, 8.2 K/9, 27.7 WAR)
If we’re talking just straight up MLB’s starting pitcher Mount Rushmore since 1990, it’s probably Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Clemens and MartÃnez.
Three-time Cy Young winners Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw are also viable candidates, but Clemens and MartÃnez are, at worst, both top-seven starting pitchers of the past 35 years.
For Boston to have had each of them for more than 200 regular-season starts and for a combined three Cy Young seasons (two by MartÃnez, one by Clemens) was quite the luxury.
(Clemens actually won three Cy Youngs and an MVP with Boston, but his six seasons before 1990 weren’t considered part of the data set. If they were, he easily supplants MartÃnez for the top spot. But he’s also easily part of this Rushmore without those first 1,284.2 IP with a 3.06 ERA.)
From 1990 onward, Tim Wakefield almost pitched as many innings with Boston as Clemens and MartÃnez combined. His numbers are nowhere near as impressive as what those two all-time greats accomplished, but Wakefield did become the singular name associated with the knuckleball for an entire generation of baseball fans. Couple that with his longevity, and it would be just about impossible to justify leaving his face off this mountainside.
Lastly, Lester was a three-time All-Star and two-time World Series champ. Between those 2007 and 2013 Fall Classics, he made three starts, allowing just one run in 21 innings of work. In all, he tossed 76.2 postseason innings with a 2.11 ERA for Boston before taking some of that magic with him to Wrigley Field.
Toughest Omissions: Josh Beckett, Chris Sale, Curt Schilling, Clay Buchholz
Chicago Cubs5 of 30
Carlos ZambranoRon Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Chicago’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Carlos Zambrano (1,791.0 IP, 124-79, 3.57 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 30.3 WAR)
Kyle Hendricks (1,529.2 IP, 96-79, 3.67 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 25.1 WAR)
Jake Arrieta (889.1 IP, 73-42, 3.14 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 17.7 WAR)
Jon Lester (1,002.2 IP, 77-44, 3.64 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 16.8 WAR)
Big Z takes the cake here for his 11 seasons in Chicago. His three Silver Sluggers weren’t part of the consideration, but he did have nine consecutive years with a sub-4.00 ERA.
Beyond that, though, exactly how much bonus Rushmore consideration should be given to breaking a 108-year curse?
Because on regular-season numbers alone, Kerry Wood—who won NL Rookie of the Year in 1998 partly for that unforgettable 20-strikeout performance—probably belongs on this Rushmore ahead of both Lester and Arrieta. So does Greg Maddux.
But while Maddux’s only two postseason appearances with Chicago were losses in 1989 and Wood got shelled in Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS when the Cubs needed him the most, Lester gave them 35.2 innings with a 2.02 ERA during the 2016 postseason run.
Hendricks was also fantastic that October, logging 25.1 IP with a 1.42 ERA. That includes starting Game 7 against Cleveland before passing the baton to Lester.
That team never makes it that far without Arrieta, either. He won the 2015 Cy Young, tossed two no-hitters in the span of 11 starts from 2015 into 2016, and won four games between those two postseasons. He has the lowest ERA of any Cubs starter with at least 300 innings pitched since 1990.
All the same, leaving out both Wood and Maddux here just feels plain wrong.
At least Maddux got top billing on Atlanta’s Rushmore, and we can point to the fact that 1988-89 (when he made 69 starts for Chicago with a 3.07 ERA) didn’t count as a big reason the Professor narrowly missed the cut. He did win the Cy Young in 1992 with the Cubs, though.
Toughest Omissions: Greg Maddux, Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Ryan Dempster
Chicago White Sox6 of 30
Mark BuehrleHannah Foslien/Getty Images
Chicago’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Mark Buehrle (2,441.0 IP, 158-118, 3.83 ERA, 5.1 K/9, 42.2 WAR)
Chris Sale (1,014.2 IP, 70-47, 3.04 ERA, 10.0 K/9, 25.4 WAR)
Jack McDowell (1,157.0 IP, 83-48, 3.47 ERA, 6.4 K/9, 23.0 WAR)
Jose Quintana (1,048.1 IP, 50-54, 3.54 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 21.0 WAR)
Buehrle’s playing days ended before the implementation of the pitch clock, but it feels safe to say he could have gone his entire career without committing a timer violation.
He threw a no-hitter in 2007 and a perfect game in 2009, each lasting two hours and three minutes. He was their speedy workhorse, logging at least 30 starts and 200 innings pitched in 11 consecutive seasons (2001-11).
Right after Buehrle left, Sale became the staff’s ace, converting from reliever to starter during the 2011-12 offseason and reeling off five straight Cy Young-caliber seasons, albeit without winning one.
The only White Sox pitcher to win a Cy Young in the past four decades was Jack McDowell in 1993. His run from 1990-94 was every bit as impressive as Sale’s five years in Chicago’s rotation but with considerably fewer strikeouts and considerably more complete games.
We could have gone in any number of directions with Chicago’s fourth pick. Both Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland had career ERAs in the mid-4’s with the White Sox, but they were both huge during the 2005 World Series season.
Alex Fernandez pitched reasonably well for a long time, and Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease were both solid strikeout artists in recent years.
However, we went with Quintana, who gave the South Siders four consecutive seasons (2013-16) with at least 200 innings pitched and an ERA of 3.51 or better. They just never gave him much run support.
Toughest Omissions: Alex Fernandez, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, Dylan Cease, Lucas Giolito
Cincinnati Reds7 of 30
José RijoFocus on Sport/Getty Images
Cincinnati’s SP Mount Rushmore:
José Rijo (1,155.2 IP, 76-47, 2.86 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 28.6 WAR)
Johnny Cueto (1,339.0 IP, 92-63, 3.21 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 20.6 WAR)
Bronson Arroyo (1,761.1 IP, 108-100, 4.18 ERA, 5.9 K/9, 14.1 WAR)
Homer Bailey (1230.1 IP, 67-77, 4.56 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 13.5 WAR)
Had it not been for a serious elbow injury that just about ended his career at 30 years old, Rijo might be enshrined in Cooperstown.
At any rate, his run from 1988-94 with the Reds was special, peaking with a World Series MVP in 1990 for allowing just one run in 15.1 innings pitched. He gave them six consecutive seasons with a sub-2.90 ERA, culminating in leading the NL in strikeouts in 1993.
Then there’s the tier of Reds pitchers who did reasonably well, given the handicap of needing to make more than 100 career starts at Great American Ballpark.
Of the bunch, Cueto easily fared the best. His first few years in the big leagues were nothing special, but he gave Cincinnati five straight seasons (2011-15) with a sub-2.90 ERA, nearly winning the NL Cy Young in 2014.
Arroyo had the longest run with Cincinnati, making 56 more starts and winning 16 more games than his closest competition (Cueto). He did give up quite a few home runs (275 in those 279 starts), but he received one Cy Young vote in 2010 and one MVP vote in 2006.
Regarding the final spot, there are plenty of decent candidates with at least 500 innings pitched and a better ERA than Bailey’s mark of 4.56. He tossed two no-hitters in less than 10 months, though, with a 10-strikeout, one-hit gem in the 2012 postseason in between. That has to count for something.
Toughest Omissions: Luis Castillo, Aaron Harang, Mike Leake, Mat Latos, Sonny Gray
Cleveland Guardians8 of 30
Corey KluberHannah Foslien/Getty Images
Cleveland’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Corey Kluber (1,332.1 IP, 97-58, 3.15 ERA, 9.8 K/9, 34.5 WAR)
CC Sabathia (1,528.2 IP, 106-71, 3.83 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 30.2 WAR)
Shane Bieber (836.1 IP, 62-31, 3.17 ERA, 10.3 K/9, 21.7 WAR)
Cliff Lee (1,111.1 IP, 83-48, 4.01 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 19.0 WAR)
This might be the most cut-and-dried Mount Rushmore of the 30, as all four of these pitchers won at least one Cy Young during their journey to at least 134 career starts with Cleveland.
Kluber was the lone double-dipper of the bunch, winning in both 2014 and 2017. Add his third-place finishes in 2016 and 2018 and his ninth-place finish in 2015 and he had a 2.85 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 10.1 K/9 for a half-decade in which he tossed more complete games (17) than anyone.
Sabathia won his Cy Young in 2007 and was a three-time All-Star in his seven-plus seasons in Cleveland. He never gave them a sub-3.20 ERA, but he was a workhorse, consistently giving them at least 180 innings and an ERA south of 4.40.
Bieber has the asterisk of winning his Cy Young in 2020, but that especially dominant two-month run was hardly out of character for him. From 2019-22, he had a 2.91 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 10.9 K/9, quite similar to Kluber’s aforementioned five-year stretch of dominance.
Lee is the one you could argue over if you want to make the case for Charles Nagy winning 128 games and logging nearly 2,000 innings in his 13 seasons, particularly because Lee had several kind of terrible years before finally breaking through for good and winning the Cy Young in 2008.
He was absurdly good during that 22-3 campaign, though, and putting Nagy’s 4.44 ERA over a Cy Young winner would be tough to justify.
Toughest Omissions: Charles Nagy, Carlos Carrasco, Bartolo Colon, Trevor Bauer
Colorado Rockies9 of 30
Ubaldo Jiménez Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Colorado’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Ubaldo Jiménez (850.0 IP, 56-45, 3.66 ERA, 8.2 K/9, 18.7 WAR)
Germán Márquez (1,014.2 IP, 65-56, 4.42 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 17.3 WAR)
Jorge De La Rosa (1,124.1 IP, 85-61, 4.38 ERA, 7.7 K/9, 14.6 WAR)
Jhoulys ChacÃn (657.0 IP, 38-47, 3.75 ERA, 6.7 K/9, 9.6 WAR)
Since becoming a franchise in 1993, Colorado has yet to either win a Cy Young award or even produce a first runner-up.
In fact, only four Rockies pitchers—Marvin Freeman in 1994, Jeff Francis in 2007, Ubaldo Jiménez in 2010 and Kyle Freeland in 2018—have ever received so much as one down-ballot vote for best pitcher in the NL.
But that checks out, right?
Pitching in Coors Field has been an eternal struggle, with Jiménez and ChacÃn the only pitchers in franchise history to log at least 500 innings as a starter with an ERA below 4.38.
Free-agent starting pitchers have all but outright refused to even field phone calls from the Rockies, reluctant to sign where pitching careers go to die.
Unless I’m mistaken, the only starting pitcher in the past two decades to hit free agency from a different team and sign for more than $3.5 million with Colorado was Kyle Kendrick taking a one-year, $5.5 million deal in 2015. He proceeded to allow the most home runs in the majors that season and logged just 8.1 big league innings for the rest of his career.
All things considered, it’s impressive that these four pitchers were able to do as much as they did with the Rockies, playing the game on the toughest difficulty level.
And there probably should be a statue erected at Coors Field in honor of that 2010 season when Jiménez started the All-Star Game.
Toughest Omissions: Aaron Cook, Kyle Freeland
Detroit Tigers10 of 30
Justin VerlanderSteve Nurenberg/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Detroit’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Justin Verlander (2,511.0 IP, 183-114, 3.49 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 57.9 WAR)
Max Scherzer (1,013.0 IP, 82-35, 3.52 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 22.4 WAR)
Tarik Skubal (524.0 IP, 37-29, 3.47 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 11.4 WAR)
Rick Porcello (1,067.0 IP, 76-62, 4.32 ERA, 5.5 K/9, 14.8 WAR)
It might feel a little premature to chisel Skubal into stone, not even 100 starts into his career, but he already has the eighth-highest WAR on a Detroit list that gets mediocre mighty quick after the dynamic duo that won Cy Youngs in 2011 and 2013.
Of course, those are Verlander and Scherzer. The former ends up as either the greatest or second-greatest pitcher in Tigers history, depending on whether you think Verlander did enough in his 13 seasons with the team to supplant two-time AL MVP Hal Newhouser in franchise lore. Both he and Scherzer are locks to join Newhouser in Cooperstown five years after they retire.
But Skubal sure is putting up numbers on par with those all-timers.
In fact, it’s intriguing to look side-by-side-by-side at what the three did while with Detroit, with nearly identical ERA, as well as near-identical ratios of IP/WAR. Both Skubal and Scherzer are between 45-46 innings pitched per win above replacement, with Verlander only marginally better at 43.1 IP/WAR.
The young southpaw is already quite the star, and he should join his predecessors in the Cy Young club in a few months.
For Detroit’s fourth spot, Porcello had a respectable run in the shadow of Verlander and Scherzer in the first half of the 2010s. Doug Fister was better than Porcello, but in fewer than half as many innings pitched. The same goes for David Wells’ two-plus years in Detroit.
Toughest Omissions: Doug Fister, Jeremy Bonderman, AnÃbal Sánchez, Justin Thompson
Houston Astros11 of 30
Roy OswaltBob Levey/Getty Images
Houston’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Roy Oswalt (1,915.0 IP, 140-80, 3.25 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 46.0 WAR)
Justin Verlander (777.0 IP, 71-24, 2.48 ERA, 10.9 K/9, 21.9 WAR)
Roger Clemens (539.0 IP, 38-18, 2.40 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 15.2 WAR)
Shane Reynolds (1,574.0 IP, 100-85, 3.96 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 30.3 WAR)
Here’s where the quantity vs. quality debate faced one of its toughest tests.
Not with Oswalt, though. His spot is non-negotiable. For nearly a full decade with the Astros, he was what Mark Buehrle was for the White Sox with his grip-it and rip-it, up-tempo dominance.
(It’s a shame they weren’t matched up with each other when those teams met in the 2005 World Series. That game might have been finished in about 47 minutes.)
Verlander’s spot in this top four is also beyond reproach. He hasn’t pitched anywhere near as many innings with Houston as he did with Detroit, but he has been more dominant in his time with the Astros with a 0.885 WHIP across those 123 starts.
If Verlander’s 2.48 ERA in 777 innings pitched is good enough, is Roger Clemens’ 2.40 ERA in 539 IP? Or Gerrit Cole’s 2.68 ERA in 412.2 IP?
Would including both mean leaving out Shane Reynolds’ 100 wins with a sub-4.00 ERA and Dallas Keuchel’s 2015 Cy Young season?
And how much more does Framber Valdez (3.37 ERA in 796 IP) need to do before he supplants all four of those options?
Ultimately, we decided to leave out Keuchel, whose overall numbers with the Astros weren’t all that different from those of Darryl Kile, Mike Hampton and Wandy Rodriguez. And while Cole was unquestionably more of a force of nature than Reynolds with a 13.1 K/9 in his 65 starts, it’s not like Reynolds pitched poorly while nearly quadrupling Cole’s innings pitched and more than doubling his 13.4 WAR.
Toughest Omissions: Gerrit Cole, Dallas Keuchel, Framber Valdez, Wandy Rodriguez, Mike Hampton, Darryl Kile
Kansas City Royals12 of 30
Kevin AppierSetNumber: X57689 TK3 F19 R12
Kansas City’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Kevin Appier (1,799.0 IP, 114-87, 3.40 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 41.9 WAR)
Zack Greinke (1,316.1 IP, 61-88, 3.93 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 25.5 WAR)
Danny Duffy (1,136.1 IP, 67-67, 3.99 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 15.4 WAR)
David Cone (425.2 IP, 27-19, 3.17 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 7.7 WAR)
The first three choices for Kansas City were quite easy to make.
The Royals have a whole host of starting pitchers (13) who logged between 550-860 innings pitched, all with an ERA north of 4.00. And then they have three pitchers who tallied way more than 860 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA to boot.
Appier sits atop the list, particularly dominant at the beginning of our data set, placing third in the 1990 AL Rookie of the Year vote and third in the 1993 AL Cy Young vote. It’s hard to believe he was only named an All-Star once (1995) in a career where he racked up a borderline Hall-of-Fame-worthy amount of WAR.
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, when Greinke gets in one day with his 2009 Cy Young award and six Gold Gloves, he’ll presumably have a KC hat on his plaque, pitching nearly twice as many innings with the Royals as he did with any other team.
Duffy doesn’t spring to mind as an immediate choice quite like Appier and Greinke do, but he had decent career numbers in his 11 seasons with the Royals.
No great long-term options for the Royals’ fourth spot, making Cone as good a choice as any. He only spent two seasons with the Royals, but he won the Cy Young in 1994, credited with 16 of their 64 wins in that abruptly truncated season.
Toughest Omissions: James Shields, Tom Gordon, Brady Singer
Los Angeles Angels13 of 30
Shohei OhtaniRonald Martinez/Getty Images
Los Angeles’ SP Mount Rushmore:
Chuck Finley (2,144.0 IP, 135-108, 3.76 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 38.6 WAR)
Jered Weaver (2,025,0 IP, 150-93, 3.55 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 31.4 WAR)
John Lackey (1500.0 IP, 102-71, 3.82 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 27.1 WAR)
Shohei Ohtani (481.2 IP, 38-19, 3.01 ERA, 11.4 K/9, 11.8 WAR)
Might as well focus on the bottom of that list with what is sure to be the controversial choice, even though it really shouldn’t be.
Ohtani only made 86 starts with the Angels thanks to multiple elbow operations, and there are several options—Mark Langston, Jarrod Washburn and Ervin Santana—who logged well over 1,000 innings pitched with the Angels with respectable marks.
Each of those three had one season in which he received at least one Cy Young vote, with Washburn’s coming as the ace of the 2002 staff that won a World Series. (Though, he had a 5.02 ERA in five starts during that Rally Monkey-fueled postseason run.)
For those 86 starts, though, Ohtani was in a class of his own.
No other Angels starter with at least 300 innings pitched since 1990 had an ERA below 3.45 or a K/9 greater than 9.4. And even as he closes in on a 40 HR / 40 SB campaign for the other Los Angeles team, Ohtani remains one of the first names—if not always the first name—that comes to mind if tasked with naming the best Angels pitchers in semi-recent history.
Beyond the two-way unicorn, it is pretty easy to go with the trio of Halos, who each won more than 100 games and each had a sub-4.00 ERA.
Lackey won an ERA title in 2007. Weaver’s peak from 2010-12 was some kind of special, resulting in three top-five finishes in Cy Young votes. And Finley was a five-time All-Star, four of them coming during his 14 seasons with the Angels.
Toughest Omissions: Mark Langston, Jarrod Washburn, Ervin Santana, Bartolo Colon, C.J. Wilson, Kelvim Escobar
Los Angeles Dodgers14 of 30
Clayton KershawJayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
Los Angeles’ SP Mount Rushmore:
Clayton Kershaw (2,732.2 IP, 212-94, 2.48 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 76.5 WAR)
Kevin Brown (856.2 IP, 57-32, 2.78 ERA, 8.1 K/9, 23.9 WAR)
Zack Greinke (602.2 IP, 51-15, 2.30 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 13.2 WAR)
Hideo Nomo (1,217.1 IP, 81-66, 3.74 ERA, 8.9 K/9, 19.6 WAR)
Beyond the three-time Cy Young winner who will be a Hall of Famer as soon as he is eligible, the Dodgers’ list of options is simply overflowing with “was better than average for a good while.”
Of the 21 starters who have logged at least 500 IP for LAD since 1990, the only ones with an ERA north of 4.00 are Brad Penny (4.04) and Darren Dreifort (4.50).
But the only ones with an ERA below 2.80 are Kershaw, Brown and Greinke.
Greinke was merely there for three years, but he left quite a mark. In his final Dodgers season in 2015, he led the majors in both ERA (1.66) and WHIP (0.84), narrowly missing out on a Cy Young award because Jake Arrieta won 22 games for the Cubs with similar marks (1.77 and 0.86, respectively).
Brown was also quite good for four of his five years with L.A., albeit never quite that remarkable. He did lead the NL in both ERA (2.58) and WHIP (0.99) in 2000, though.
For the fourth spot, we could have gone with Hyun-Jin Ryu (2.99 ERA in 736.1 IP) or Ramón MartÃnez (3.45 ERA and 116 wins in 1,593.1 IP), but it’s just hard to argue with Nomo, whose signature tornado windup baffled hitters and whose leap from NPB to MLB really opened the door to baseball becoming what it is today.
Toughest Omissions: Ramón MartÃnez, Hyun Jin Ryu, Chad Billingsley, Walker Buehler
Miami Marlins15 of 30
Dontrelle WillisStephen Dunn/Getty Images
Miami’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Dontrelle Willis (1,022 IP, 68-54, 3.78 ERA, 6.7 K/9, 16.8 WAR)
Sandy Alcántara (892.1 IP, 41-55, 3.31 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 16.4 WAR)
José Fernández (471.1 IP, 38-17, 2.58 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 14.5 WAR)
Kevin Brown (470.1 IP, 33-19, 2.30 ERA, 7.0 K/9, 13.2 WAR)
Because the Marlins have a decades-long proclivity to either trade away or simply not re-sign their best players before they become free agents, this was one of the toughest Rushmores to finalize.
Only two pitchers in franchise history have logged at least 900 innings in a starting role, and one of them (Ricky Nolasco, 1,198.1 IP, 4.45 ERA) just kind of pitched a lot of not-great innings. Willis was the other one, and at least he was awesome for his first few years—with a signature leg kick in his wind-up that was always fun to imitate. He won NL Rookie of the Year in 2003 and almost won the Cy Young in 2005.
Alcántara did win a Cy Young (Miami’s only one thus far) in 2022, tossing 228.2 innings with a 2.28 ERA. It was the only instance in the past eight years of someone throwing at least 220 innings in a single season with a sub-2.50 ERA. We’ll see if he’s the same in 2025 after recovering from Tommy John surgery, though.
Fernández won NL Rookie of the Year a decade after Willis and was well on his way to what could have been a legendary career when he tragically passed away in that boating accident at 24 years young.
If we’re going to include Fernandez’s combo of 471.1 IP and 2.58 ERA, kind of have to have Brown’s combo of 470.1 IP and 2.30 ERA, too. He struggled in the 1997 World Series, but he got them there in just their fifth year of existence with a dominant two-year run as their ace.
That leaves out Josh Johnson, A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett, each of whom got their start with the Marlins and pitched well for 5-7 years before landing elsewhere. No matter how you slice it, though, three semi-strong candidates were going to miss the cut here.
Toughest Omissions: Josh Johnson, A.J. Burnett, Josh Beckett
Milwaukee Brewers16 of 30
Ben SheetsRob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Milwaukee’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Ben Sheets (1,428.0 IP, 86-83, 3.72 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 31.9 WAR)
Yovani Gallardo (1,280.0 IP, 89-63, 3.70 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 17.2 WAR)
Corbin Burnes (627.1 IP, 37-24, 3.07 ERA, 11.1 K/9, 17.2 WAR)
Brandon Woodruff (653.2 IP, 44-26, 3.14 ERA, 10.4 K/9, 15.7 WAR)
Perhaps the biggest revelation from this entire exercise is that Sheets was only with the Brewers for eight seasons.
For whatever reason, it felt like he spent as much time in Milwaukee as Adam Wainwright did in St. Louis. However, he just left a lasting impression in those eight years, including four All-Star Games en route to an easy selection for this list.
Gallardo also spent eight years with the Brewers, albeit with minimal overlap with Sheets. In fact, it wasn’t until Sheets left after the 2008 season that Gallardo really emerged as a top-of-the-rotation starter, reeling off four straight years with 200-plus strikeouts from 2009-12.
Then you have the dynamic duo of lesser innings in more recent years.
Burnes didn’t become a full-time starter until 2020, but he earned Cy Young votes in each of his final four seasons with the Brewers, including winning one in 2021.
Woodruff was just as good, though. From 2020-23, Burnes had a 2.86 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 11.1 K/9; Woodruff’s marks were 2.76, 0.98 and 10.8, respectively. He just wasn’t quite as durable in 2022 and 2023 as Burnes’ star began to shine brightly.
Toughest Omissions: Freddy Peralta, Chris Capuano, Chris Bosio, Bill Wegman
Minnesota Twins17 of 30
Johan SantanaJim McIsaac/Getty Images
Minnesota’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Johan Santana (1,145.0 IP, 89-42, 3.11 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 29.0 WAR)
Brad Radke (2,448.0 IP, 148-139, 4.22 ERA, 5.4 K/9, 38.7 WAR)
Kevin Tapani (1,136.2 IP, 73-61, 4.07 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 21.9 WAR)
Jack Morris (246.2 IP, 18-12, 3.43 ERA, 5.9 K/9, 4.1 WAR)
Santana’s run from 2004-07 was phenomenal. It was in that window of pitching history when Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson were approaching their finish lines, but the new regime of Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander had yet to really take over.
Santana was arguably the single best starting pitcher of that time, making 134 starts with a 2.89 ERA and winning two AL Cy Youngs.
Radke’s numbers aren’t that impressive, but he had superior longevity, making at least 28 starts in 11 of his 12 seasons with the Twins. Plus, his numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, as 1995-2006 was pretty much the peak of the steroid era. He allowed more home runs (326) than anyone during that time, but he still provided quite a bit of value.
Tapani only had one particularly good season with the Twins, but it at least came in the year they won the World Series, posting a 2.99 ERA in 1991.
And in lieu of any sort of great option for a fourth longer-term Twin, Morris is the lone Mount Rushmore pitcher who only spent one season with the team in question.
However, when you place fourth in the AL Cy Young vote before putting together four consecutive quality starts in the postseason, culminating in tossing 10 shutout innings to win Game 7 of the World Series, it doesn’t take more than one season to become one of the best in franchise history.
Toughest Omissions: José BerrÃos, Scott Baker, Scott Erickson, Francisco Liriano
New York Mets18 of 30
Jacob deGromSarah Stier/Getty Images
New York’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Jacob deGrom (1,326.0 IP, 82-57, 2.52 ERA, 10.9 K/9, 41.2 WAR)
Al Leiter (1,360.0 IP, 95-67, 3.42 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 23.8 WAR)
Noah Syndergaard (717.0 IP, 47-31, 3.33 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 18.6 WAR)
Dwight Gooden (878.2 IP, 57-46, 3.77 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 18.1 WAR)
Let’s start the Mets discussion with one of the toughest omissions of all: R.A. Dickey.
He had an ERA north of 4.00 at every other stop in his career, but he had a 2.93 mark in his three seasons in New York, really making that knuckleball dance in 2012 en route to 20 wins and the NL Cy Young.
Who gets cut to make room for him, though?
Certainly not deGrom’s two Cy Young awards. When healthy, he has been Hall of Fame good.
Can’t be Leiter, either, who had a strong seven-year run, logging more innings pitched as a Mets starter than anyone else in the past 35 years. He also recorded a quality start in six of his seven postseason appearances with the Mets. (Though, the exception to that rule was absolutely brutal.)
Before the injuries that quickly derailed Syndergaard’s career, “Thor” was more of a force on the mound than Dickey ever was.
And while not counting the 1984-89 portion of Gooden’s career makes his numbers with the Mets look drastically less impressive than they were, putting Dickey on a Mount Rushmore instead of “Doc” might be grounds for getting myself permanently banned from setting foot in Queens again.
Toughest Omissions: R.A. Dickey, David Cone, Johan Santana, Matt Harvey, Tom Glavine
New York Yankees19 of 30
Andy PettitteScott Halleran/Getty Images
New York’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Andy Pettitte (2,781.1 IP, 218-127, 3.94 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 56.7 WAR)
Mike Mussina (1,549.1 IP, 123-72, 3.87 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 34.5 WAR)
CC Sabathia (1,917.0 IP, 134-88, 3.81 ERA, 8.0 K/9, 31.6 WAR)
Roger Clemens (1,1012.0 IP, 83-42, 4.00 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 22.8 WAR)
The Yankees presented one of the only cases where simply going with the four longest-tenured options makes the most sense.
For now, at least. Gerrit Cole (716 IP, 3.16 ERA, 11.0 K/9, 16.0 WAR) is already staking a good claim for top four, and he’ll presumably get there with room to spare by the time his contract expires in either 2028 or 2029.
Masahiro Tanaka (1,051.1 IP, 3.74 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 18.8 WAR) didn’t miss the cut by much, either, boasting a better ERA and whiff rate than all four pitchers selected.
Clemens won one of his Cy Youngs with the Yankees, though, and his final two starts of New York’s 2000 World Series run (17.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 24 K) were ludicrous. In fact, “Rocket” made nine quality starts in the postseason during his half-decade with the Bronx Bombers.
Mussina and Sabathia were kindred spirits who passed like ships in the night, the former pitching with the Yankees from 2001-08 while the latter was there from 2009-19. They each had several seasons worthy of Cy Young consideration while combining to give New York a quality veteran for nearly two decades.
And seemingly through it all, Pettitte was there. He had a three-year hiatus with Houston in the middle of his 15 seasons with the Yankees, but he was a big part of the World Series rings won in each of 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. All told, he made 40 postseason starts with the Yankees, 25 of which were quality starts.
Toughest Omissions: Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, David Cone, David Wells
Oakland Athletics20 of 30
Tim HudsonJed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
Oakland’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Tim Hudson (1,240.2 IP, 92-39, 3.30 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 27.6 WAR)
Barry Zito (1,436.1 IP, 102-63, 3.57 ERA, 6.9 K/9, 23.8 WAR)
Mark Mulder (1,003.0 IP, 81-42, 3.92 ERA, 6.0 K/9, 17.7 WAR)
Bob Welch (777.1 IP, 58-42, 4.25 ERA, 4.2 K/9, 2.8 WAR)
If you’re old enough to remember the early 2000s, surely you knew this trio was coming.
From 2000-04, Hudson, Zito and Mulder were the Moneyball version of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. Per FanGraphs, all three were top-20 pitchers for that half-decade, racking up a combined total of 234 wins as the A’s went 483-326, finishing five straight seasons at least 20 games above .500.
In 2000, Hudson was first runner-up to Pedro MartÃnez for AL Cy Young. The following year, Mulder was first runner-up to Roger Clemens (with Hudson finishing in sixth place). And in 2002, Zito edged out MartÃnez to win it.
Oakland did have one other Cy Young winner, too. Welch went 27-6 with a 2.95 ERA in 1990 for what is, in hindsight, maybe the most inexplicable Cy Young ever. Clemens had a 1.93 ERA and finished third in the AL MVP vote, but he received fewer Cy Young votes than Welch. Even Oakland teammate Dave Stewart (267.0 IP, 22-11, 2.56 ERA) was arguably more deserving than Welch.
All the same, it was a great season for Welch, who would spend another four years with Oakland to end up with the most wins and innings pitched outside of that big three.
Toughest Omissions: Dave Stewart, Sonny Gray, Dan Haren, Brett Anderson
Philadelphia Phillies21 of 30
Cole HamelsG Fiume/Getty Images
Philadelphia’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Cole Hamels (1,927.0 IP, 114-90, 3.29 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 40.6 WAR)
Curt Schilling (1,631.0 IP, 99-76, 3.35 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 38.5 WAR)
Aaron Nola (1,576.0 IP, 101-77, 3.69 ERA, 9.9 K/9, 36.2 WAR)
Zack Wheeler (778.0 IP, 55-30, 3.00 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 22.8 WAR)
Sadly, we cannot make an exception for a six-headed Mount Rushmore here, which means Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay get squeezed out. This despite the former pitching masterfully into his mid-30s for a 2.94 ERA in his five seasons with them and the latter both winning a Cy Young (2010) and pitching a no-hitter in the postseason.
As things stand right now, you could argue for either one to land ahead of Wheeler. He has given them five mostly stellar seasons, though, and is signed through 2027. Hard to imagine he won’t be clearly ahead of both Halladay and Lee three years from now.
And the trio of Hamels, Schilling and Nola is already clearly there, each logging more innings pitched with the Phillies than both Lee and Halladay combined.
To be sure, they were more than just innings-eaters, too.
Hamels had a great run from 2007-14, earning Cy Young votes four times and tossing five consecutive quality starts in October 2008 en route to a World Series ring. Schilling’s final few seasons of brotherly love were dominant, named an All-Star in each of 1997, 1998 and 1999.
And Nola might be headed for his fourth consecutive even year with Cy Young votes, previously receiving some in each of 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Toughest Omissions: Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Randy Wolf, Terry Mulholland
Pittsburgh Pirates22 of 30
Gerrit ColeJustin Berl/Getty Images
Pittsburgh’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Gerrit Cole (782.1 IP, 59-42, 3.50 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 15.4 WAR)
Zane Smith (763.1 IP, 47-41, 3.35 ERA, 4.2 K/9, 13.0 WAR)
Doug Drabek (722.2 IP, 52-31, 2.86 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 12.8 WAR)
Paul Maholm (1,143.2 IP, 53-73, 4.36 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 14.7 WAR)
Pittsburgh’s list of candidates was…rough.
How rough, you ask?
For similar value added during both the Houston (13.4 WAR) and New York (16.0 WAR) portions of his career, Cole didn’t crack those teams’ Mount Rushmores. But for the five seasons in Pittsburgh before he became one of the best strikeout artists in the game today, there’s really no question that he’s the No. 1 choice here.
He and Smith of early-1990s fame are Pittsburgh’s only candidates with at least 750 innings pitched and a sub-4.20 ERA.
The Pirates did at least have one Cy Young winner, though, courtesy of Doug Drabek in 1990. If we also included the 1987-89 portion of his career, he’d easily land ahead of Cole for the top spot, as he had a 3.02 ERA and won 92 games in his six seasons with this franchise. Even chopping his Pittsburgh career in half, though, he still made the cut with some room to spare.
Lastly, hard to argue with Maholm, who logged nearly 200 more innings as a starter than any other Pirate since 1990. He was never an All-Star and his lone winning season came when he went 3-1 in six starts as a rookie. Still, he was a solid ground-ball pitcher and workhorse during a seven-year stretch in which the Pirates lost at least 90 games each season.
Toughest Omissions: Zach Duke, Kris Benson, Jason Schmidt, Francisco Liriano
San Diego Padres23 of 30
Jake PeavyJim McIsaac/Getty Images
San Diego’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Jake Peavy (1,342.2 IP, 92-68, 3.29 ERA, 9.0 K/9, 28.8 WAR)
Andy Benes (1,166.1 IP, 63-72, 3.56 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 21.7 WAR)
Andy Ashby (1,210.0 IP, 70-62, 3.60 ERA, 6.2 K/9, 17.9 WAR)
Blake Snell (436.2 IP, 29-25, 3.15 ERA, 11.9 K/9, 9.9 WAR)
In Minnesota’s Mount Rushmore, we crowned Johan Santana as the best pitcher in baseball from 2004-07.
Peavy was one hell of a 1B to Santana’s 1A, though, leading the majors in ERA in both 2004 (2.27) and 2007 (2.54), including winning a Triple Crown (19 W, 240 K) and Cy Young in the latter year. He also led the NL in strikeouts in 2005 (216) with a 2.88 ERA.
Snell logged considerably fewer innings pitched with the Padres than Peavy did, but he also won a Cy Young and an ERA title in 2023 in what was the greatest high-wire act of all-time, walking 99 batters en route to his 2.25 ERA. He also struck out a lot of foes during his three seasons in Petco Park.
San Diego’s other two spots go to the two Andys (Andies? Andes?) it employed in the 1990s.
Benes was a Cy Young candidate in 1991, an All-Star in 1993 and a strikeout leader in 1994, posting a sub-4.00 ERA in each of his five full seasons with the Padres. But Ashby had the luxury of playing with them when they were good in the latter half of the decade, pitching in the postseason in both 1996 and 1998. He was an All-Star in both 1998 and 1999.
Toughest Omissions: Yu Darvish, Joey Hamilton, Brian Lawrence, Tyson Ross
San Francisco Giants24 of 30
Tim LincecumMasterpress/Getty Images
San Francisco’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Tim Lincecum (1,628.2 IP, 105-83, 3.60 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 28.4 WAR)
Madison Bumgarner (1,841.1 IP, 119-92, 3.14 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 31.4 WAR)
Matt Cain (2,070.0 IP, 104-118, 3.65 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 28.3 WAR)
Logan Webb (808.2 IP, 52-40, 3.36 ERA, 8.2 K/9, 18.3 WAR)
There were two somewhat tough decisions to make with the Giants.
The first (and more important) is whether to go with Webb or Jason Schmidt in the last spot.
Schmidt almost won a Cy Young in 2003 with an NL-best 2.34 ERA and MLB-best 0.95 WHIP, but that was the year Eric Gagné went a perfect 55-for-55 in save chances with a 1.20 ERA. Schmidt was also an All-Star in 2004 and 2006.
But Webb also has a Cy Young first-runner up “trophy” from 2023, has an identical career ERA (3.36) and—the real kicker—is signed through 2028 and is all but certain to eventually leave Schmidt in the dust. Considering you can already make the case for Webb winning that battle, we might as well put him ahead for now.
The other tough call was whether to go with “MadBum” or “Big Time Timmy Jim” (a.k.a. “The Freaky Franchise”) for the photo.
Bumgarner logged more innings with a better ERA, won 14 more games and was a postseason god with a 2.11 ERA across more than 100 innings pitched. In the three World Series alone, he allowed one run in 36 innings of work. And twice in do-or-die wild-card games, he tossed complete-game shutouts.
Legen—wait for it—dary.
But early-career Lincecum was stupendous in his own right, winning back-to-back Cy Young awards and leading the NL in strikeouts in three consecutive years. He later threw two no-hitters in the span of less than one calendar year.
He was pretty good in the postseason, too, with a 2.40 ERA in 56.1 innings pitched, including a 14-strikeout shutout in his first-ever playoff appearance.
Toughest Omissions: Jason Schmidt, Johnny Cueto, Ryan Vogelsong
Seattle Mariners25 of 30
Félix HernándezAlex Trautwig/MLB via Getty Images
Seattle’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Félix Hernández (2,724.0 IP, 169-135, 3.42 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 54.1 WAR)
Randy Johnson (1,687.1 IP, 122-65, 3.35 ERA, 10.8 K/9, 41.9 WAR)
Jamie Moyer (2,090.0 IP, 145-86, 3.97 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 30.3 WAR)
Logan Gilbert (656.2 IP, 39-27, 3.56 ERA, 8.9 K/9, 11.5 WAR)
Before you hit the ceiling with the placement of King Félix above the Big Unit, please note that we’re not taking Hernández’s career over Johnson’s.
But if we’re comparing the entirety of Hernández’s 15-year career with the M’s to the eight-plus years of Johnson from 1990-98, it’s a good debate that Hernández arguably wins.
Each produced one Cy Young trophy and a pair of first runner-up finishes with similar marks in both ERA and WHIP. Johnson was the more dominant strikeout force, but Hernández’s 2,524 career strikeouts are nothing to sneeze at, good for 16th best among all pitchers dating back to 1990.
Beyond that top two, Moyer is the next obvious choice here, racking up more than half of his 269 career wins with the Mariners. He won 20 games in 2001 at 38 years old, and another 21 two years later in his only All-Star campaign. All three years in which he received Cy Young votes came with the Mariners.
The fourth pick is tough, though.
Freddy Garcia logged the most innings (1,093.1) with a respectable 3.90 ERA. Erik Hanson narrowly edged out Garcia for the fourth-best WAR. But it kind of feels like it needs to come from the current very good rotation, with Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Gilbert all viable candidates.
Of that trio, Gilbert has the most experience with Seattle and is having the most dominant season right now with a 2.96 ERA and MLB-best 0.88 WHIP.
Toughest Omissions: Freddy Garcia, Erik Hanson, George Kirby, Luis Castillo, James Paxton
St. Louis Cardinals26 of 30
Adam WainwrightJoe Puetz/Getty Images
St. Louis’ SP Mount Rushmore:
Adam Wainwright (2,586.1 IP, 198-127, 3.54 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 46.5 WAR)
Chris Carpenter (1,347.2 IP, 95-44, 3.07 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 27.5 WAR)
Matt Morris (1,324.1 IP, 98-59, 3.61 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 23.7 WAR)
Bob Tewksbury (922.1 IP, 65-46, 3.47 ERA, 3.8 K/9, 15.5 WAR)
Yes, Wainwright did reach 200 wins in a career spent entirely with the Cardinals. You’re not misremembering that dramatic finish to his career last season.
However, two of those 200 victories (and three saves) came in 2006, when all 61 of his appearances came as a reliever. Hence the 198 vs. 200 discrepancy here. Either way, only Clayton Kershaw and Andy Pettitte have had more wins with a single team since 1990.
After Waino, Carpenter and Morris played a mean two-headed second fiddle.
There wasn’t much overlap between the two, but they both played a huge role in what was one of the Cardinals’ best seasons in 2004. Each starter won 15 games for the 105-win Cards, though Carpenter did miss most the postseason with a nerve injury as St. Louis was swept out of the World Series by Boston.
Morris’ best season came in 2001, when Arizona’s Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling battled each other for a Cy Young. Morris placed third that year, though, before Carpenter won one in 2005. Carpenter was also close in both 2006 and 2009.
Go all the way back to the beginning of the data set and Tewksbury had a solid five-year run with the Cardinals, peaking in 1992 with a 2.16 ERA in 233 innings pitched. He narrowly missed out on an ERA title (Bill Swift won at 2.08) and landed behind both Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine in the Cy Young vote.
Toughest Omissions: Lance Lynn, Jaime Garcia, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Miles Mikolas
Tampa Bay Rays27 of 30
David PriceRich Schultz
Tampa Bay’s SP Mount Rushmore:
David Price (1,134.0 IP, 82-47, 3.19 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 21.9 WAR)
James Shields (1,453.2 IP, 86-73, 3.89 ERA, 7.7 K/9, 24.0 WAR)
Chris Archer (1,074.2 IP, 55-67, 3.67 ERA, 9.7 K/9, 19.0 WAR)
Blake Snell (556.0 IP, 42-30, 3.24 ERA, 10.5 K/9, 11.5 WAR)
Sadly, with just about every noteworthy Rays pitcher, you can somewhat gauge how good they were by how noteworthy Tampa Bay’s return was when they inevitably traded them away.
For four-time All-Star and 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price, they got Willy Adames, Drew Smyly and Nick Franklin. It was quite the return for one-and-a-half seasons of a guy who they were never going to be able to sign once he hit free agency—and quickly became one of the worst contracts in recent history. Before Price got paid, though, he was awesome for Tampa Bay.
For two years of “Big Game James” and Wade Davis, the Rays got Mike Montgomery, Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi and a prospect who never made it to the majors (Patrick Leonard). Not as great as the haul for Price, but a worthy deal for a workhorse who routinely ranked among the league leaders in innings pitched.
Archer’s was the preposterous return, as they got Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz for the two-time All-Star who never even remotely lived up to the hype with Pittsburgh.
And then for the final three years of Snell’s somewhat backloaded contract, the Rays got four prospects, none of whom have amounted to anything yet, though there’s still hope for RHP Cole Wilcox.
It’s not often the Rays get the raw end of a deal, but they didn’t get much for the 2018 Cy Young winner who went on to win another in 2023.
Toughest Omissions: Scott Kazmir, Tyler Glasnow, Shane McClanahan, Jeremy Hellickson
Texas Rangers28 of 30
Nolan RyanRon Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Texas’ SP Mount Rushmore:
Nolan Ryan (600.2 IP, 35-29, 3.52 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 14.3 WAR)
Yu Darvish (782.2 IP, 52-39, 3.42 ERA, 11.0 K/9, 18.3 WAR)
Kevin Brown (1,057.1 IP, 64-53, 3.86 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 18.1 WAR)
Kenny Rogers (1,606.0 IP, 112-76, 4.32 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 23.0 WAR)
Texas is one of just two active franchises that has never produced a Cy Young winner, and the only one that doesn’t play its home games at Coors Field.
The Rangers have had some serious stars toe the rubber for at least a little while, though.
Late-career Ryan was still a tour de force, leading the majors in both K/9 and H/9 in each of his first three seasons with Texas, even though he was well into his mid-40s at that point.
Darvish came closest to winning a Cy Young with a second-place finish in 2013—although he wasn’t actually close, receiving zero first-place votes to Max Scherzer’s 28. He had a 2.83 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 11.9 K/9 that year and was a four-time All-Star in his five mostly healthy seasons with Texas.
Brown didn’t really become a star until after he left Texas, but he did give them one standout year in 1992 with an MLB-best 21 wins.
And Kenny Rogers—no, not that Kenny Rogers, gamblers—made the cut mostly because of his longevity. He had three separate stints with the Rangers, spanning 12 seasons. He was an All-Star for three of them and a Gold Glove recipient four times.
Incredibly, some of his best work came in his last go-around with the Rangers at 39-40 years old.
Toughest Omissions: MartÃn Pérez, C.J. Wilson
Toronto Blue Jays29 of 30
Roy HalladayJ. Meric/Getty Images
Toronto’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Roy Halladay (1,990.0 IP, 145-74, 3.39 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 48.6 WAR)
Juan Guzmán (1,215.2 IP, 76-62, 4.07 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 22.6 WAR)
Pat Hentgen (1,581.2 IP, 102-83, 4.26 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 20.0 WAR)
Roger Clemens (498.2 IP, 41-13, 2.33 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 18.9 WAR)
Halladay narrowly missed the cut for Philadelphia’s Mt. Rushmore, but it was never a question whether he would be the first pick for Toronto.
“Doc” was a six-time All-Star, the 2003 Cy Young winner and a five-time top-five Cy Young vote-getter while with the Blue Jays, doing everything in his power to keep complete games a thing in MLB. He tossed 49 with the Jays, 15 of them shutouts.
Both Guzmán and Hentgen were a big part of Toronto’s back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. Guzmán went a combined 30-8 with one All-Star Game and some Cy Young votes in ’93. Hentgen was also an All-Star and Cy Young vote recipient in ’93, before winning a Cy Young in 1996.
Clemens only spent two seasons north of the border, but what a two seasons they were. He won the Triple Crown (and the Cy Young Award) in both years, becoming the only pitcher since Sandy Koufax in the 1960s to do so multiple times in a career, let alone in consecutive seasons.
(Some lot of good it did the Blue Jays, though, who missed the playoffs in both years.)
Toughest Omissions: Marcus Stroman, Kevin Gausman, David Wells
Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos30 of 30
Max ScherzerMitchell Layton/Getty Images
Washington’s SP Mount Rushmore:
Max Scherzer (1,229.0 IP, 92-47, 2.80 ERA, 11.8 K/9, 36.8 WAR)
Stephen Strasburg (1,470.0 IP, 113-62, 3.24 ERA, 10.6 K/9, 36.6 WAR)
Pedro MartÃnez (796.2 IP, 55-33, 3.06 ERA, 9.5 K/9, 20.0 WAR)
Gio González (1,253.1 IP, 86-65, 3.62 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 23.5 WAR)
Giving Scherzer a seven-year, $210 million contract in January 2015 was one of the best free-agent signings by any team in recent history. He was a terror in his six-plus seasons in D.C., winning two Cy Youngs and finishing top-five in that vote four other times.
Giving Strasburg a seven-year, $245 million contract in December 2019 was…decidedly not one of the best ROI moves of all time. But he earned it with what he did for that franchise in his first 10 seasons, culminating in that incredible run through the 2019 World Series.
It’s a shame González wasn’t part of that championship team, because he was a big part of the Nationals’ development into a real contender in the years leading up to that. He received Cy Young votes in both 2012 and 2017.
MartÃnez only spent four years (1994-97) with the franchise when it was still in Montreal, but his 1.90 ERA and 0.93 WHIP while logging more than 240 innings pitched in 1997 was quite the preview of what Boston was going to get over the subsequent six seasons. He won his first Cy Young that year…by a landslide.
Toughest Omissions: Jordan Zimmermann, Livan Hernandez, Javier Vazquez, Dennis Martinez
