I'm aware how each metric calculates its value, I happen to prefer fWAR. But using a sum total doesn't really tell the story here because it ignores that deGrom had one massive outlier year. By year: deGrom: 4.8, 2.9, 4.1, 9.0 He basically had a bunch of Greinke relative down years mixed with one Kershaw year. When predicting future performance, I'm going to mostly discard that single Kershaw year and focus on the very-good-but-not-great other years, especially because he has returned to approximately the same pitcher this season. Compare to Chris Sale: 5.6, 5.4, 7.5, 6.2 Sure, the net total is similar but when predicting future performance, that stability of Sale is far more alluring. He's legitimately one of the best pitchers in baseball on a yearly basis.