Texas Rangers starter Mike Minor continued his brilliant season by shutting out the New York Yankees for the first time in 220 games.
Mike Minor of the Texas Rangers has been the model of consistency and longevity in this, his 8th year in the big leagues at 31 years old.
Monday he shut out the New York Yankees for the first time in 220 games and you can check out fellow writer Manny Gomez’s piece about it here.
Minor has had an incredible season and it isn’t about to stop yet. The workhorse has logged the third-most innings pitched in the entire league at 181 2/3 and also leads the league in WAR for pitchers at 7.7.
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He is also third amongst all big leaguers in terms of WAR, one of only two pitchers who crack the top 10 in the league.
This season he is 12-8 with a 3.12 ERA and 180 strikeouts. He is not necessarily a flashy power pitcher like Justin Verlander or a guy with a wealth of different pitches like Trevor Bauer, but he quietly goes about his business and is really good at it.
He is one of the more underrated pitchers in the league and should be garnering more attention than he is getting.
Without the flashy numbers such as strikeouts or wins, he won’t really be in the conversation as far as the AL Cy Young award, but he is a big reason why the Rangers are close to the .500 mark at 68-71.
While many writers, myself included, assumed Mike Minor would be pitching elsewhere at this point in the season, it’ll be interesting to see how the Texas Rangers handle his contract situation. With one more year left, next year could be the year we see Minor move at the trade deadline.
The one question is will he maintain his value through next year? His ERA this year is the second-best of his career, his best if you count the years he was a starter. I hope he will and would love to see what he can do for a contender.