Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays barely came away with the American League Cy Young Award, while Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets won in a landslide contest.
Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays and Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets are the 2018 Cy Young Award winners, as was confirmed by BBWAA Thursday night. The full results for the AL votes can be found here, while the NL vote tally can be found here.
Starting with Snell, he was the clear deserving pitcher. He pitched to an astounding 1.89 ERA while striking out 221 and racking up 21 wins for the 90-win Rays. According to BBWAA, Snell’s 180.2 innings pitched are the fewest for any Cy Young award winning pitcher in a full season.
Snell, 25, also boasted a WHIP of 0.974 and added 31 starts to his totals. Though he came away with the victory with 169 total points, Houston Astros hurler Justin Verlander wasn’t too far behind, claiming second place with 154 points. Corey Kluber (71 points), Chris Sale (59 points) and Gerrit Cole (26 points) rounded out the top five.
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As for deGrom, there really was no doubt. In 217.0 frames, he pitched to a jaw-dropping 1.70 ERA, striking out 269 despite only totaling 10 wins. With a WHIP of 0.912, deGrom, according to the BBWAA page, had the fewest victories of any Cy Young Award starting pitcher in history.
deGrom dominated the competition, earning 207 points. The runner-up, Washington’s Max Scherzer, got 123 points, while Aaron Nola of the Phillies (86 points), Kyle Freeland of Colorado (49 points) and Arizona’s Patrick Corbin (23 points) also placed highly. Nola, Scherzer, and deGrom appeared on every single ballot.
While the results were somewhat predictable, it was nice to see Snell and deGrom, two easily deserving pitchers, come away with the hardware. Although some other awards might spark controversy and debate, this announcement surely will not.
In this case, the voters rewarded the right players. Blake Snell and Jacob deGrom were certainly deserving of the Cy Young award.