Clayton Kershaw and Corey Kluber won the NL and AL Cy Young Awards, respectively, Wednesday night, as voted upon by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).
Kershaw winning his second consecutive NL Cy Young is certainly no surprise. Though finalists Adam Wainwright and Johnny Cueto had excellent seasons, he was clearly the best pitcher in the league. (Kershaw may also be voted the best player in the league, with Thursday’s NL MVP balloting still pending.)
The Dodgers’ ace was a unanimous winner, receiving all 30 first-place votes among BBWAA balloters. Cueto finished second, garnering 23 second-place votes (and six third-place nods), while Wainwright earned seven (and 23 third-place nods).
Kershaw finished with a 21-3 record, leading MLB with a 1.77 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and six complete games. Had he not missed the first month of the season due to inflammation in his upper back, Kershaw would have easily exceeded 200 innings and led the NL — if not all of baseball — in strikeouts. As it is, he still finished with 198.1 innings and ranked third among NL starters with 239 strikeouts, averaging a career-high 10.8 Ks per nine frames.
The left-hander has now won the NL Cy Young Award in three of the past four seasons. (I would argue that he had an excellent case for winning in 2012 over R.A. Dickey.)
On the AL side, it was a far closer race with the Indians’ Corey Kluber winning Cy Young Award honors. The right-hander finished with 17 first-place votes, 11 second-place votes and two third-place votes in the final balloting. Felix Hernandez placed second in the voting, earning 13 first-place votes and 17 second-place nods. The Tribe’s ace finished ahead of Hernandez by 10 total points, 169 to 159.
Kluber emerged as Cleveland’s No. 1 starter in 2014 with Ubaldo Jimenez leaving via free agency and Justin Masterson battling injury and poor performance before he was eventually traded to the Cardinals. In 34 starts, he compiled an 18-9 record and 2.44 ERA, along with 269 strikeouts in 235.2 innings. Kluber also walked just 51 batters, averaging out to less than two per nine innings.
The tight vote reflects just how close the numbers were between Kluber and Hernandez. The Mariners’ ace finished with a lower ERA (2.14), WHIP (0.90) and opponents’ batting average (.200), but had 21 fewer strikeouts in just one-third more of an inning.
Those strikeout numbers may have given Kluber the nod, in addition to an outstanding September performance in which he went 5-1 with a 2.09 ERA in six starts, striking out 56 batters in 43 innings. (However, Hernandez wasn’t exactly a slouch, going 2-1 with a 1.66 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 38 innings in six September starts.)
