Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander win Cy Young awards, Soroka finishes 6th

MLB’s awards week begins to wind down with the announcement of the league’s top pitchers in each league aka the Cy Young Awards. Unlike in some previous years where there was a clear cut favorite, this year the field was far more muddled with several worthy candidates in each league.

In the National League, Jacob deGrom took home the hardware while beating out Hyun-jin Ryu and Max Scherzer for the honor. All three had strong cases to make, but deGrom’s excellence throughout the season along with going north of 200 innings for the third consecutive season separated him from the pack despite the fact that he team was not particularly good. In 204 innings in 2019, he struck out 255 batter against just 44 walks while posting a 2.43 ERA and 2.67 FIP for the Mets. Jacob became the 11th pitcher in baseball history to repeat as a Cy Young Award winner.

For those wondering, Mike Soroka, who put together one of the finer pitching performances we have seen out of a rookie, finished 6th in the voting with one third place vote being the highest he appeared on a ballot (John Fay from the Cincinnati Enquirer has fine taste).

In the American League, the field came down to two Astros pitchers, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, as well as Tampa Bay’s Charlie Morton (who is a former Astro...something is in the water down there). Again, another case where all three pitchers had excellent seasons and would be worthy winners. While Cole has been getting most of the headlines of late due to his free agency, Verlander got the nod to win his second Cy Young (his first came back in 2011). Verlander found the Astros’ fountain of youth and 2019 was no exception as he posted his second straight 6+ fWAR season with a 2.58 ERA, 12.11 K/9, and doing so while logging 223 innings.

With the Cy Youngs settled, all that is left to announce is the Most Valuable Players in each league. The Braves do not have any finalists in those races, but expect Freddie Freeman, Josh Donaldson, and Ronald Acuna Jr. to get some votes when the tallies are announced.