Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Robbie Ray was the runaway winner of the American League Cy Young Award and Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes won a tight battle to claim the National League Cy Young Award, it was announced Wednesday on the MLB Network.
It is the first Cy Young Award for both hurlers.
Ray, 30, received 29 first-place votes and 207 points in balloting by 30 Baseball Writers Association of America voters.
Right-hander Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees received the other first-place vote and was a distant second with 123 points. Chicago White Sox right-hander Lance Lynn (48 points) was third.
In the NL, Burnes and second place Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies each received 12 first-place votes. But Burnes (151 points) earned 14 second-place votes to nine for the right-hander Wheeler (141).
Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Max Scherzer (113 points) received six first-place votes while placing third. Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler (70) was fourth.
The 30-year-old Ray led the majors with 248 strikeouts. He also led the AL with a 2.48 ERA and went 13-7 in 32 starts.
“This is a huge honor and I’m very thankful,” Ray said in a live televised interview on the MLB Network following the announcement.
Ray is the first Toronto pitcher to win the award since the late Roy Halladay in 2003.
“I felt like everything was coming together at the perfect time,” Ray said of his big season.
Cole, 31, compiled a 16-8 record and 3.23 ERA with 243 strikeouts in 30 starts. His 16 wins were most in the AL.
The 34-year-old Lynn went 11-6 with a 2.69 ERA and 176 strikeouts in 28 starts. He only pitched 157 innings so he didn’t qualify to win the ERA title.
In the NL, the 27-year-old Burnes posted a league-best 2.43 ERA. He went 11-5 with 234 strikeouts in 28 starts and is the first Brewers’ pitcher to win the honor since Pete Vuckovich in 1982 and third overall. Reliever Rollie Fingers won in 1981.
Burnes said his ascension to being a top-flight pitcher is tied to developing the cutter. In 2019, he had an 8.82 ERA and served up 17 homers in just 49 big-league innings.
“I fully committed to the cutter in 2020,” Burnes said. “That was the tough part and saying we’re going to dive all in. We can’t regret it and go back and forth. That was one of the hardest decisions I had to make — the cutter is going to be the pitch and I didn’t know it was going to turn into this.”
Wheeler, 31, led the NL with 247 strikeouts and the majors with 213 1/3 innings pitched while going 14-10 with a 2.78 ERA in 32 starts.
The 37-year-old Scherzer went 15-4 with a 2.46 ERA while splitting the season with the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. The three-time Cy Young winner struck out 236 in 30 starts. He went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 11 starts after the Dodgers acquired him at the trading deadline.
Boston Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (41 points) and White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon (34) round out the AL’s top five. Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff (21) was fifth in the NL.
–Field Level Media
