Mets’ deGrom, Rays’ Snell win Cy Young awards

Max Scherzer still had two more potential starts left, when he acknowledged defeat in the National League Cy Young race — a defeat made official Wednesday when New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom was named the 2018 winner.

Scherzer and his teammates were in the visitors’ clubhouse in Miami, filling out their players’ choice awards ballots — a humorous process during which exclamations such as “How do you spell his name?” or “I’m not voting for you, man!” fill the room. The Washington Nationals ace sat quietly at his locker, head buried in the stats he was looking up on his phone. Eventually, he stood up to solicit some suggestions, and the topic wound around to the Cy Young race.

“DeGrom has it,” he said, face stoic, which might as well be sombre for the ever-energetic Scherzer. He knew he would beat deGrom in wins, where he had 18 and deGrom just 10, but figured the writers (a.k.a., the voters) don’t care about wins much anymore.

ERA featured prominently in this year’s Cy Young races, with Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell winning his first career Cy Young in the American League with a 1.89 mark. In so doing, he became the 13th starter since 1975 to finish a season with a sub-2.00 ERA.

Snell beat out Houston Astros right-hander Justin Verlander and Cleveland Indians righthander Corey Kluber for the award. He narrowly edged Verlander. The 35-year-old, who led the American League in strikeouts in a resurgent season for the defending World Series champions, received 13 first-place votes and 13 second-place votes. Snell got 17 first-place votes and 11 second-place votes, becoming the first Ray to win the award since David Price did so in 2012.

DeGrom’s victory came as no surprise after a season in which the strongest argument against him was the offensive futility of his teammates, which cost him games he should have won. That argument did not withstand the scrutiny of the voters, however. The right-hander did not allow more than four runs in any of his 32 starts this season and set a major league record for consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer.