2024 Ben McDonald Award: Cole Ragans

In the closest ballot in five years, Cole Ragans of Poovey Farms became the first rookie in a generation to win the Ben McDonald Award as the DMBL's top pitcher.

Ragans, who came within 4 points of also winning the Listach Award, edged Philly's Logan Webb in the closest McDonald vote since 2019 when Livingston's Gerrit Cole beat teammate Hyu Jin Ryu by just 6 points. Vancouver's Tarik Skubal, the ERA champion, finished 4th followed by Sandy Alcantara of Arkansas.

	BEN MCDONALD AWARD	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Pts
1	Cole Ragans, POO*	3	3	4				71
2	Logan Webb, PHI	3	3	1	2		1	63
3	Tarik Skubal, VAN	3		2	1		2	45
4	Sandy Alcantara, ARK	1	3		2	1	1	40
5	Brandon Woodruff, TUC			2	2		1	17
6	Sonny Gray, MC		1			1	1	10
7	Gerrit Cole, LIV					3		6
8	Miles Mikolas, HPG				1		2	5
-	Emmet Sheehan, HBK*			1				5
10	Zack Wheeler, PHI					2		4
11	Corbin Burnes, ARK				1			3
-	Spencer Strider, HIL				1			3
-	Cristopher Sanchez, VAN*					1	1	3
14	Sean Manaea, PHI					1		2
-	Kodai Senga, ALN*					1		2
16	Devin Williams, ERI						1	1

* Denotes rookie

The top three finishers each received 3 1st place votes but only Ragans and Webb appeared on all 10 ballots cast by DMBL owners. Both also got 3 2nd place votes as did Alcantara, who also nabbed a 1st place vote. Ragans received the most 3rd place votes (4), pushing him past Webb, whose 4 non-1st or 2nd-place votes a 3rd, 2 4ths, and a 6th.

Ragans, the 4th overall pick of the 2024 draft, becomes only the second rookie to win the McDonald Award. In 2002, Mark Buehrle of the Columbia Crusaders won the McDonald while Hoboken SP Joel Piñeiro took home the Listach; the two went No. 3 and No. 4 overall in the draft that year. He's also the 5th left-hander to ever win the McDonald, and the first since Philly's Johan Santana in 2007. It's the 1st McDonald Award for the Poovey Farms franchise.

Three other rookies received support on the McDonald ballot: Hoboken's Emmet Sheehan received a 3rd place vote, finishing tied for 8th with 5 points; Vancouver's Cristopher Sanchez nabbed 2 ballots, a 5th and 6th place vote to earn 3 points, tied for 11th; and Allentown's Kodai Senga received a single 5th place vote, for 2 points, tied for 14th.

Sixteen pitchers in all received support across the 10 ballots cast by DMBL owners; Erie's Devin Williams was the only reliever among the 16.

Last year's unanimous McDonald winner, Justin Verlander, was nowhere to be found on the ballot but the 2023 Listach winner, Spencer Strider, received a single 4th place vote to finish with 3 points, tied for 11th.