Worst pitchers in 2023 – by G. Scott Thomas

You know what’s coming.

Tuesday’s story reported on the tailenders in the 2023 races for five batting awards that had previously been announced. But nothing was said about the three pitching honors that had also been handed out.

The latter, of course, are today’s focal points. Look below to see the pitchers who posted the worst statistics in those three categories.

You’ll see a definition of each award, the names of the pitchers with the worst performances in the American and National Leagues, a brief commentary, and then the names of the award winners who had been announced in previous weeks.

Pitchers were required to work 162 innings to be considered for any of the three awards. That, of course, is the official threshold for the ERA title.

I had to reduce the limit when I calculated the worst performances. Any pitcher who suffered through a miserable season in 2023 undoubtedly had his workload reduced, preventing him from reaching 162 innings. So I cut the number — solely for the purposes of determining the tailenders — by one-third to 108 innings.

The three pitching awards are named after Hall of Famers. If you want to read more about the best performances in those categories, follow these namesake links: Juan Marichal, Randy Johnson, and Warren Spahn.

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• Definition: Goes to the pitcher who allows the fewest bases per out (BPO). The first step is to count the number of bases surrendered through singles, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, hit batters, stolen bases, and sacrifices. That figure is then divided by the number of outs that the pitcher induced.

• AL worst: Michael Kopech, White Sox, BPO .936

• NL worst: Trevor Williams, Nationals, BPO .905

• Notes: Kopech obtained 391 outs for the White Sox, but he also allowed opposing batters to reach 366 bases. His resulting BPO of .936 was easily the worst in either league. Compare it to the numbers for Gerrit Cole, the best pitcher in 2023. Cole induced 626 outs (235 more than Kopech), yet he allowed only 311 bases (55 fewer than Kopech), giving him a sparkling BPO of .497.

• AL best: Gerrit Cole, Yankees, BPO .497

• NL best: Corbin Burnes, Brewers, BPO .549

• Definition: Goes to the pitcher who averages the most strikeouts per six innings. (Not nine innings. Six.)

• AL worst: Martin Perez, Rangers, SO/6 3.94

• NL worst: Kyle Freeland, Rockies, SO/6 3.62

• Notes: If you’re going to work in the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, it helps to have a putaway pitch. Freeland doesn’t. He struck out only 3.62 batters per six innings, the lowest rate in the majors. The result was a 6-14 record with a 5.03 ERA.

• AL best: Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays, SO/6 7.69

• NL best: Spencer Strider, Braves, SO/6 9.03

• Definition: Goes to the pitcher who averages the highest number of innings per appearance. (The bottom end of this category is limited to pitchers who not only worked at least 108 innings, but also made at least 15 starts.)

• AL worst: Nick Pivetta, Red Sox, IP/G 3.75

• NL worst: Drew Smyly, Cubs, IP/G 3.47

• Notes: This category admittedly gets a bit unfair at the bottom end. Smyly was primarily a starter for the Cubs — taking the ball for 23 games — but his 18 relief appearances reduced his overall ratio to 3.47 innings per game (the lowest for any pitcher with at least 15 starts and 108 innings). Nine of his starts, it should be noted, lasted less than five innings.

• AL best: Framber Valdez, Astros, IP/G 6.39

• NL best: Sandy Alcantara, Marlins, IP/G 6.60