Bartolo Colon is a fan favorite. The smirking, seemingly ageless, overweight pitcher has somewhat of a cult following across baseball, especially later in his career. While with the Mets from 2014-2016, the baseball world seemed to stop every time Colon came up to bat for New York's National League franchise.
Colon has been around a long time. He is the last active player to pitch for the Montreal Expos. He even pitched against current Twins manager Paul Molitor.
After being released by the Braves on July 4th, 2017 he signed a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins. But as Bartolo-Mania swept across the country, Twins fans still remember him for one thing:
Winning the 2005 Cy Young award over Johan Santana.
In the mid 2000s, there was no pitcher in the world better than Johan Santana. After becoming a regular in the Minnesota Twins' starting rotation in 2003, Santana won 122 games for the Twins and Mets over the next seven years.
The height of Santana's dominance was 2004-2006. Over those three years, Santana was 55-19 with a 2.75 ERA and averaged nearly 250 strikeouts. Johan won the AL Cy Young in 2004 and 2006, and he should have won it in 2005 as well.
Johan finished third in the AL Cy Young Voting in 2005 behind Colon and Yankee closer Mariano Rivera. Looking back on the numbers, there is really only one reason that Colon was voted for over Santana:
The only category Santana didn't lead was wins. Colon's Anaheim Angels won 95 games and made the playoffs. Santana's Twins won 83 and finished third in the AL Central. Other than only winning 16 games, 2005 was arguably the best season of Santana's career. And he finished third because the Angels were a better team than the Twins.
It's not that Colon had a bad year for Anaheim in 2005. But Santana was better. Santana led the majors in strikeouts (he had 80 more than Colon), allowed 35 fewer hits and 12 fewer runs despite pitching 9 more innings. An even more tell-tale stat of their seasons is Wins Above Replacement (WAR), which didn't exist in 2005. And it's not recognized as an official stat by MLB or Elias, so there's that.
Bartolo Colon pitching for the Angels in 2005
What traditionalist baseball writers saw was that Colon was 10-2 in his last 14 starts for the Angels, who needed every single one of those wins to hold off Oakland in the AL West. It also helps Colon's win total that his bullpen blew zero saves for him, and his offense gave him run support (6.02 runs per game)
Santana left the game with the lead 19 times, and saw the bullpen give three of those away. The Twins only scored 121 runs for him, compared to Colon's 149.
Santana's stats in his last three no-decisions that year? 23 innings pitched, 9 hits, 3 runs. 0 wins.
Another mind-blowing stat from 2005. Bartolo Colon's opponent average was .254. Santana's on-base percentage was .250.
And it wasn't just Minnesota being sore about it. Jayson Stark thought he got snubbed. Mariano Rivera finished second in that year's voting, even though he was left off of numerous ballots because old writers don't think that relievers should win the Cy Young (for the record, I don't think they should either. Also, nine relievers have won the Award, most didn't have stats that compared to Mo that season.)
To make things worse, after injuries ended his career, there is little chance that Johan Santana will be elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Every other pitcher to win three or more Cy Young Awards (except for Rogers Clemens and Clayton Kershaw) have been elected in to the Hall: Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Steve Carlton, and Randy Johnson.
Only three two-time winners are in (Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Tom Glavine) compared to two who aren't in (Denny McLain and Bret Saberhagen), one who won't get in (Tim Lincecum), one who might get in (Roy Halladay), and one who is still building his resume (Max Scherzer).
While Santana's stats likely aren't enough to get him into the Hall (139-78, 3.20 ERA, 1988 strikeouts over a 12-year career), that third Cy Young on his resume may have put him over the top.
But instead, it went to Colon. The rare Cy Young Three Peat for Santana never happened (it's so rare, it has never happened in the American League).
Minnesota fans still aren't sure what was worse that season: Santana getting screwed out of history, or watching the White Sox win the World Series that year.
Barf.