2022 McDonald Award winner: Jacob deGrom

Jacob deGrom collected Livingston's second Ben McDonald Award in franchise history, easily outdistancing fellow 21-game winner Walker Buehler of El Paso and the rest of the field.

After winning 43 games over the past three seasons, deGrom broke out with a 21-win campaign (21-4) in 2022, capturing the ERA crown (1.99) and leading the league in most pitching categories, including 356 strikeouts, coming within a dozen of Chris Sale's all-time record (367). In previous voting for the McDonald Award, recognizing the league's top pitcher, deGrom, 34, finished a distant 6th in 2018 and in 2020. It's the second McDonald Award for Livingston following Gerrit Cole's win in 2019. Cole finished 9th this year.

deGrom and Buehler, the DMBL's only 20-game winners, were the only pitchers to appear on all 9 ballots submitted among the DMBL's 20 owners. deGrom received 7 of the 9 1st-place votes to go with 2 other 2nd-place nods. The other two 1st-place votes split between Buehler and Tucson's Tanner Houck. Buehler collected the most 2nd-place votes (3) and 3rd-place votes (4). One ballot was submitted with only four selections made out of six slots, which accounts for there only being a total of 8 5th- and 6th-place votes.

		1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	PTS
1	Jacob deGrom, LIV	7	2					84
2	Walker Buehler, EP	1	3	4	1			54
3	Tanner Houck, TUC*	1	2	1	3			38
4	Ranger Suarez, MAR		2	1	4		1	32
5	Zack Wheeler, PHI			2		4	1	19
6	Tyler Glasnow, SF			1		2	1	10
7	Chris Bassitt, LIV				1		1	4
8	Kevin Gausman, TUC					1	1	3
9	Gerrit Cole, LIV					1		2
10	Jonathan Loasiga, NWK						1	1
--	Cristian Javier, VAN						1	1
--	Liam Hendriks, TUC						1	1

Rookie* 

Houck, the only rookie to receive support, finished 3rd, just ahead of Marietta lefty Ranger Suarez, who set a new league record for win percentage (.950, 19-1). Finishing a distant 5th was Philly's Zack Wheeler, who got the most 5th-place votes (4). Three relievers rounded out the voting results, each earning one 6th-place vote.

Last year's McDonald Award winner, Aaron Nola of Vancouver, did not receive a vote in any ballot. He had a respectable season, it just wasn't up to McDonald contention: 15-15 with a 3.75 ERA and 1.14 WHIP and 264 strikeouts (5th in the league) in 216 IP. He also tossed 2 shutouts. The 30 decisions led the DMBL.