In a historic year for pitching, with record strikeouts, ERA and innings, Aaron Nola took home a record 7th Ben McDonald Award for the Vancouver franchise.
Nola garnered 5 of the 7th 1st-place votes cast by DMBL owners, along with a 2nd and 4th, outpacing Blue Ridge's Shane Bieber. It's the first McDonald for the Iron First since Johnny Cueto won it in 2017. The 28-year-old Nola led the league in ERA and technically set a new league record, just barely besting Sid Fernandez's 1.90 mark set in 1994. He also matched the league mark for quality starts (29) and quality start percentage (.879, 29/33), set by Tim Hudson in his 2004 McDonald Award campaign with Carolina.
Despite not receiving a 1st-place vote, Bieber's combination of 3 2nd-place votes and 4 3rd-place tallies placed him 2nd in voting. Merrill Kelly of San Francisco, the league's leader in wins (23-7), innings (263.7) and complete games (7), grabbed the other 1st-place vote and finished 3rd. Philly's Zack Wheeler secured the other 1st-place vote but it was his only nod, placed him 6th.
| | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | POINTS |
| 1 | Nola | 5 | 1 | | 1 | | | 60 |
| 2 | Bieber, BR | | 3 | 4 | | | | 41 |
| 3 | MKelly, SF | 1 | 2 | | 2 | 1 | | 32 |
| 4 | IAnderson*, HBK | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 22 |
| 5 | Bauer, BR | | | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 19 |
| 6 | ZWheeler, PHI | 1 | | | | | 1 | 11 |
| 7 | Gonsolin*, ARK | | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 8 | Fried, EP | | | | | 1 | | 2 |
| 9 | Slegers*, SCS | | | | | | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | BKeller, BR | | | | | | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Hendricks, TUC | | | | | | 1 | 1 |
* - rookie
Hoboken rookie Ian Anderson, who finished 2nd in Listach Award voting, placed 4th. He, Nola and Bieber were the only pitchers to appear on all 7 ballots. Trevor Bauer of Blue Ridge appeared on 6 of the 7 ballots, but none higher than 3rd place, and found himself right behind Anderson, finishing 5th.
Arkansas rookie Tony Gonsolin finished a distant 7th thanks to a single 4th, 5th and 6th place vote. He also placed 6th for the Listach. The rest of the pack garnered but one vote: El Paso's Max Fried got a 5th-place vote while three other pitchers got a single 6th-place vote: Sardine City's rookie reliever Aaron Slegers, Blue Ridge's Brad Keller, and Tucson closer and DMBL Eck Award winner, Liam Hendriks.
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