MLB Roundup 11/14: Cy Young winners announced

Cy Young winners announced

In the second to last major award announcement, the BBWAA announced the Cy Young winners last night. In the National League, there wasn’t a whole lot of intrigue. This one looked like it was going to be a close race for most of the season, but Hyu-Jin Ryu wasn’t quite as dominant towards the end of the year as he was for most of the season and Max Scherzer was hurt for a chunk of time in the second half. That opened the door for Jacob deGrom, who was once again otherworldly to end the year. He won his second straight Cy Young on Wednesday, getting all but one first place vote. Ryu got the other vote. deGrom finished the season with a 2.43 ERA, a 2.62 FIP and a 2.27 DRA and he has a very good case for the Best Pitcher in Baseball title at this point.

On the other side, the American League race was a very close one with a pair of teammates — Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole — having great cases to win the award. This was just about as close to a tie in my mind as any award I can remember, and there was no way this could have gone that ended with disappointment. Verlander has found himself finishing second in close races a few times already in his career — including the year Rick Porcello won — but he pulled through this season. In a very close race in which Verlander and Cole were first or second on all 30 ballots and Verlander got four more first place votes, the veteran won his second career Cy Young. Verlander finished the year with a 2.58 ERA, a 3.30 FIP and a 2.51 DRA.

Sox Spin: The Red Sox didn’t have a winner in this award, but Eduardo Rodriguez did get votes. In a year in which the Boston lefty finished with a 3.81 ERA, a 3.89 FIP and a 4.46 DRA, Rodriguez received three fourth-place votes and two fifth-place votes and finished sixth in the voting. Charlie Morton was third, Shane Bieber was fourth and Lance Lynn was fifth while Lucas Giolito tied Rodriguez for sixth while Mike Minor finished seventh.