From the Collection: Joe Mays, sp, Minnesota Twins
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In 2001, Joe Mays was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Unfortunately for him, he was one of roughly a half-dozen players that season who could say the same thing. What’s unfortunate–outside of not picking his spot to have a career year particularly well–was that, unlike many of those other players, he would never repeat it.
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2001 Joe Mays went 17-13 on a middling Minnesota Twins club. Over 233.2 innings had a league-best 143 ERA+ and only allowed 205 hits. Sure, his peripherals had some red flags, but it was a fine season that deserved Cy Young consideration.
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But Mays picked a poor time to have a great season. End-of-year award voters had a historic level of American League pitching talent to consider in 2001. How about Mike Mussina? He had nearly the same numbers with better peripherals and played for the Yankees. Mike Mussina went 17-11 and led the league in WAR. Freddy Garcia went 18-6 and led the league in ERA. Mark Mulder went 21-8 and led the league in wins. And of course, there was the eventual Cy Young Award winner, Roger Clemens, who went 20-3.
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Mays flipped his great season into a nice four-year, $20 million deal with the Twins. And, because those early-2000 Twins were not allowed to have nice things, he immediately blew out his elbow and never really fully recovered.