In most cases, a pitcher’s record will settle where it belongs over time. In the small sample of one season, of course, it can be quite misleading. Eight years ago, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez led the American League in E.R.A. and innings and won the Cy Young Award despite a 13-12 record. It was a watershed moment in the voting process.

“I won 21 that year,” said the Yankees’ C. C. Sabathia, who finished third, behind Hernandez and David Price. “It depends on what people are looking for, I guess. I understood it, for sure, but that was the first year that the wins didn’t matter more than the rest of the stats.”

Sabathia won the Cy Young Award for Cleveland in 2007, when he was 19-7. He beat Boston’s Josh Beckett, who had one more win but a higher E.R.A. in roughly 40 fewer innings. An award based on statistics, Sabathia said, would offer more clarity.

“That’s why I like the Warren Spahn Award so much, because it’s off numbers,” said Sabathia, a three-time winner of that award, which is presented annually in Oklahoma to the majors’ best left-handed pitcher. “You get so many points for wins, so many points for E.R.A., so many points for strikeouts — and whoever’s got the highest score wins. It’s not by voting.”

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America created the Cy Young Award in 1956 — some news outlets, including The New York Times, do not permit their reporters to vote — and every starter to win it in a nonstrike season had at least 19 victories until 1982.

That year, the A.L. award went to Milwaukee’s Pete Vuckovich, who had more hits allowed than innings pitched, and issued 102 walks. But he went 18-6, and that was good enough.

Voters’ attitudes have evolved since then, and so have those of many in uniform. Callaway, who was 4-11 in his career as a pitcher, is one of them.