Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale was named the 2024 N.L. Cy Young Award winner Wednesday, completing a storybook year many thought impossible. After five dreadful, injury-plagued years with the Red Sox, the eight-time All-Star went to Atlanta and returned to glory, earning an 18-3 record and 2.38 ERA.

Sale won his first Cy Young Award in commanding fashion, earning 26 of 30 first-place votes over fellow finalists Zack Wheeler and Paul Skenes. Both pitchers had spectacular 2024 seasons, but Sale was a step above in his first full season in over five years.

“To be able to show my sons the hard work, the dedication, not giving up,” Sale said after winning the award. “My wife having my back the whole time. I’m sure I was real peachy at times during those injuries. I was talking to my dad the other day, and whether it did or didn’t happen, he was proud of me.”

Sale’s career before 2024 was neatly cut into two parts, with a steep regression almost immediately following nearly a decade of immense success. With the White Sox from 2010 to 2016, he quickly found his way in the league, making his first All-Star Game in 2012. He did not miss another one until 2019, at which point he had already been traded to Boston. In his first two seasons with the Red Sox, he continued to contribute as an ace and was even close to securing the team’s World Series championship in 2018.

In 2019, a few months after signing a five-year extension, things fell apart quickly. Sale infamously started the season with five straight losses, repeatedly flirting with a double-digit ERA. By the time he found himself again, he had to end his season early due to elbow inflammation. He missed the entire 2020 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Over the next three seasons, Sale’s time with the Red Sox was interrupted or cut short by at least five separate setback, including recovery from Tommy John, a rib fracture, hand surgery, a biking accident and multiple positive tests for COVID-19. 

He wasn’t ineffective during this dreadfully unfortunate time, but his innings were so limited that he never had a chance to justify Boston’s investment in him. After the 2023 season, the team traded him to Atlanta for infielder Vaughn Grissom, a far cry from the four-player deal the team made to acquire him from Chicago in 2016.

“I was healthy earlier in my career, and I was able to sustain some success and stay out on the field,” Sale said. “Ran into a buzz saw over the past handful of years.”

Before the season, the Braves’ pitching rotation appeared to have a massive question mark in the middle of it. There was obvious potential, too. Max Fried and Spencer Strider were both N.L. Cy Young candidates, and if Sale could find some semblance of his old form, it stood to reason that the Braves would be surefire World Series contenders.

Of course, baseball is never so straightforward. Fried and Strider both went down with long-term injuries, and though they found other gems like rookie Spencer Schwellenbach, the Braves were relegated to Wild Card status. Sale suffered a minor setback late in the season, and the team made a quiet exit against the Padres in the Wild Card round.

But while the Braves season may not have gone to plan, Sale’s return to dominance cannot be understated. After toiling away in Boston for years, struggling to find any semblance of his old self, he washed out in Atlanta and arguably had the best year of his career. 

His command and delivery were overwhelming for National League batters, and in a shockingly far cry from prior seasons, he managed to sustain that elite form for 29 starts. He struck out 225 batters in 177.2 innings pitched, and his 2.38 ERA stands among some of the best seasons in recent MLB history.

New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole was awarded the 2023 A.L. Cy Young Award Wednesday. It is the six-time All-Star’s first Cy Young and marks a bright spot in an otherwise forgettable Yankees season.

“I’m very proud of this season,” Cole said. “I’m very proud of some of the other seasons where I made a pretty strong run at this award as well. There was a lot of momentum going into this.”

In 33 starts in 2023, Cole earned a 15-4 record with a 2.63 ERA and 222 strikeouts. It was not the best season of his career from a statistical standpoint, nor did Cole lead his team to the postseason as he did for the Houston Astros. But while the Yankees struggled to consistently produce all season, Cole delivered as the ace, holding up his end of the nine-year, $324 million contract he signed with the team in 2020.

While Cole dominated on the mound, the Yankees’ struggles beyond him were expansive. Without 2022 A.L. MVP Aaron Judge for part of the season, the team’s offense stalled going into the summer and never fully recovered. New York finished the season scoring the 25th least runs.

Meanwhile, pitching besides Cole was an issue as well.

2022 All-Star Nestor Cortes only made 12 starts in a season hampered by injury. Several weeks after throwing a perfect game, Domingo German was forced to leave the team after an altercation with manager Aaron Boone. Carlos Rodon, who signed a six-year, $162 million deal last offseason, was largely ineffective and only made 14 starts.

With nearly everything going wrong, the Yankees did not buy or sell at the trade deadline and limped to an 82-80 record, missing the postseason for the first time since 2016. The team is reportedly targeting several free agents this offseason, possibly even two-way star Shohei Ohtani. Cole and Judge will be starring for the team to build around, though things will have to improve swiftly for the team to re-enter serious contention for a championship.

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander won the A.L. Cy Young Award Thursday morning, becoming the 11th player in MLB history to earn the honor three times. At 39 years old, Verlander was an integral member of the Astros’ championship-winning rotation, compiling an 18-4 record a 1.75 ERA and 185 strikeouts.

For the first time since 1968, both Cy Young winners in 2022 won by unanimous vote, as Verlander and N.L. winner Sandy Alcantara both had seasons that earned undisputed recognition. Unlike his younger counterpart from Miami, however, Verlander has been a mainstay at the highest level of baseball for more than a decade.

He earned his first Cy Young in 2011 with the Detroit Tigers, one year before the team appeared in the World Series. Managers use starting pitchers differently now than they did back then, so while it’s difficult to compare Verlander’s 28-year-old season to his 39-year-old season, his longevity is nevertheless a marvel.

It’s also earning him serious attention from multiple teams this offseason at a stage in his career when many are forced into retirement. Entering free agency, the reigning Cy Young is a puzzling case to consider as he nears age 40 — the best pitcher in baseball that is also certain to regress in the near future.

Though the Astros have offered to extend Verlander, the pitcher has stated that the market will ultimately determine his next team. The Mets, Yankees and Dodgers have all been rumored to be competing with Houston. Teams with larger payrolls are the only ones that seem capable of offering a larger, short-term contract that Verlander would require.

Any organization that acquires Verlander is looking to win as soon as possible. In a best-case scenario, he could remain strong for two to three more seasons like Roger Clemens, who won the Cy Young in 2004 at age 42. The worst-case scenario is that the culmination of years’ worth of wear and tear make an immediate impact in 2023.

For now, Verlander is the three-time Cy Young winner with multiple lucrative offers in free agency. His legacy as a Hall-of-Famer is ensured as he enters the volatile back end of his illustrious career.

New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom won his second consecutive NL Cy Young Award on Wednesday after beating out Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer. 

The 31-year-old Mets right-hander also edged out Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu after winning 29 of 30 first-place votes. Washington Nationals pitcher and World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg finished fifth in Cy Young voting after finishing with a 3.32 ERA and 251 strikeouts. DeGrom is now the seventh NL pitcher to win the Cy Young two years in a row or more. He joins a list that includes Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.

After struggling at the beginning of this season, deGrom returned to the prowess that earned him the Cy Young last year and finished this season 11-8 with a 2.43 ERA and an MLB-leading 255 strikeouts over 204 innings. The Mets ace was particularly stellar in his final 23 starts this season, as he allowed more than two runs only four times. On the day of his last start, the Mets were eliminated from wild-card contention after posting an 86-76 record.

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Last year, deGrom also earned 29 of 30 first-place votes to win the Cy Young but finished the season with a 1.70 ERA.

MLB fans on Twitter appeared to react with great excitement to the news of the Mets ace winning this year’s Cy Young for the second straight year:

A dismal 2018 season with minimal positivity and a sense of a bleak future for the New York Mets reaped one glimmer of hope in the form of a Cy Young award winner, right-hander Jacob DeGrom. 

Jacob DeGrom comments on new Mets GM

Boasting the lowest ERA of the majors, (1.70) and the lowest win total for any Cy Young winner ever, (10) DeGrom was a fantastic one-man-army in 2018. DeGrom received an overwhelming 29 first-place votes by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

DeGrom represents a seismic shift in the way writers, fans, and the game of baseball altogether are consumed and analyzed, as the previous Cy Young winner with the lowest win count was Felix Hernandez, who had only 13 in 2010. Advanced metrics are now a crucial force in determining skill and value, although DeGrom’s almost unbelievable ERA of 1.70, which was two-thirds of a run lower than the runner-up of ERA in Aaron Nola of the Phillies, (2.37), speaks enough for itself. DeGrom’s ERA was also the second best by any starter this century.

DeGrom’s excellence, like several other Major Leaguers, wasn’t demonstrated by just old-school numbers like wins and losses, but in metrics that demonstrate a dominance in individual efforts. He finished second in the National League in innings (217), strikeouts (269) and WHIP (0.91), and allowed just ten home runs, four fewer than any other starter. DeGrom also had a streak of 29 consecutive starts with three earned runs or less, which began in April and hasn’t been broken since. That continuing streak is the longest in MLB history.

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The Mets, floundering to below irrelevancy in the lousy NL East, supported DeGrom with an average of only  3.5 runs per game. Four times DeGrom didn’t allow a run and held a no-decision, while he also allowed only one run in ten starts, and went just 4-2 in those games. He allowed two runs only five times and had a losing record in those games (2-3). The numbers scream incompetence for the Mets and a legendary status for DeGrom.

DeGrom now joins the ranks of several other Mets greats, cementing himself as an icon in the modern iteration of the storied franchise. “I want to thank the baseball writers for this honor,” deGrom said. “I’m extremely humbled to win this award along with some other great former Mets such as Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and R.A. Dickey. I’d especially like to thank my teammates, coaching staff and my family.”

In 2018, in the science of baseball, numbers can never lie.

Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber were named the National League and American League 2017 Cy Young Award winners, respectively on Wednesday.

Cy Young Award Winners 2017 News

The two pitchers celebrated in very different ways, however. Scherzer threw his arms in the air and screamed before kissing his wife in jubilation. Kluber, however, seemed rather stoic.

“Winning a second one maybe, for me personally, kind of validates the first one,” Kluber said.

Scherzer, the Washington Nationals’ fiery starting right-hander, has now won three Cy Youngs and two in a row. He earned 27 of the 30 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Scherzer easily beat out Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, and said he would be drinking champagne.

Kluber won with 28 votes to beat Boston’s Chris Sale for his second AL Cy Young. His wife Amanda posted this photo of their family on Twitter:

Scherzer was 16-6 with a career-best 2.51 ERA this year. The 33-year-old righty struck out a league-leading 268 for the NL East champion Nationals.

Kluber missed a month of the season with back pain. Nevertheless, he led the majors with a 2.25 ERA, and his 18 wins tied for the most in baseball. The 31-year-old helped Cleveland win the AL Central.

He and Minnesota’s Ervin Santana tied for the major league lead with five complete games. Scherzer and Kluber both struggled in this year’s playoffs, however.

Scherzer said he couldn’t even watch the League Championship Series, although he did tune in for the World Series.

“That will eat at me this whole offseason,” he said.

The final BBWAA honors will come Thursday when the MVP awards are announced in the AL and NL.

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 11: Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals pitches in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Nationals Park on May 11, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

After leading the American League in wins and leading the Houston Astros pitching staff in their return to the postseason, Dallas Keuchel took home the 2015 A.L Cy Young Award as the league’s best pitcher.

The Tulsa, Okla., native received 22 of the 30 possible votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America; David Price, who split the season between Detroit and Toronto, received the other eight and finished in second place. Oakland’s Sonny Gray finished in third.

Keuchel finished the season with a 20-8 record, 216 strikeouts and a 2.48 ERA. He was virtually unhittable at home in Minute-Maid Park, where he went undefeated in 18 starts; that stretch made him the first ever pitcher to win at least 15 games without dropping a decision at home.

The Cy Young isn’t left-hander’s first award of the offseason; earlier this week he took home his second consecutive Gold Glove alongside teammate Jose Altuve.

PHOTO: KANSAS CITY, MO – OCTOBER 14:  Dallas Keuchel #60 of the Houston Astros throws a pitch in the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals during game five of the American League Divison Series at Kauffman Stadium on October 14, 2015 in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)