Scherzer, Kluber capture Cy Young Awards
MLB working on deal with Japan
Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals coasted to his third Cy Young Award, winning Wednesday for the second straight year in the National League.
Scherzer breezed past Los Angeles Dodg - ers ace Clayton Kershaw, drawing 27 of the 30 first-place votes in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
“Ye s!” Scherzer shouted, thrusting his arms up when the honor was announced on MLB Network.
Scherzer earned the NL honor last year with Washington and the 2013 American League prize with Detroit. He became the 10th pitcher with at least three Cy Youngs.
Scherzer was 16-6 with a career-best 2.51 ERA. The 33-year-old righty struck out a league-leading 268 for the NL East champion Nationals.
Kershaw has already won three NL Cy Youngs, and was the last pitcher to win back-to-back. He was 18-4 with a league-best 2.31 ERA and 202 strikeouts.
Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals finished third.
Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians easily won his second AL Cy Young Award earlier in the day. He got 28 of the 30 first-place votes, with Boston’s Chris Sale second and Luis Severino of the New York Yankees third.
Kluber led the majors with a 2.25 ERA and his 18 wins tied for the most in baseball. He added to the Cy Young he won with the Indians in 2014.
Kluber and Scherzer both had rough outings in the playoffs. Voting for the awards was completed before the postseason began.
The final BBWAA honors will come Thursday when the MVP awards are announced in the AL and NL.
Nicknamed “Klubot” for his robotic manner on the mound, Kluber finished 18-4 and struck out 265.
Kluber was especially dominant down the stretch, closing out the season by going 11-1 to help Cleveland win the AL Central.
Sale topped the majors with 308 strikeouts — he was the first AL pitcher to fan 300 since Pedro Martinez in 1999. Sale went 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA.
JAPAN: Major League Baseball hopes to reach a new agreement on a posting system with Japan by early December, a deal that would allow star pitcheroutfielder Shohei Otani to start negotiations with bigleague teams.
MLB Chief Legal Officer Dan Halem said Wednesday a new framework has been agreed to with Nippon Professional Baseball and that a deal with the Major League Baseball Players Association could happen “maybe within a week.” After that, MLB owners would hold a conference call for an approval vote.
Otani, a 23-year-old with the Pacific League’s Nippon Ham Fighters, would be restricted to a minor league contract with a maximum signing bonus of $3,535,000, with each team having different amounts to spend.
Halem also hopes to have a separate deal with the players’ association by mid-January on pace-ofplay changes such as a pitch clock, limits on mound visits and split screens to allow commercials on broadcasts as half-innings start.
YANKEES: Not even a World Series title would have saved Joe Girardi’s job managing the New York Yankees.
Owner Hal Steinbrenner revealed the decision to end Girardi’s tenure after a decade had long been discussed before the move was announced Oct. 26, five days after the season-ending loss to Houston in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.
A 28th title wouldn’t have caused Steinbrenner to change his mind.
“I’m sure there would have been more pressure,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday. “It maybe would have been a more difficult decision to make, but I still believe I would have made it because I felt that’s what’s best for the organization going forward.”
METS: The New York Mets have filled out their coaching staff, adding Gary DiSarcina, Dave Eiland and Ruben Amaro Jr. to the team.
DiSarcina will become the bench coach for new manager Mickey Callaway. DiSarcina was Boston’s bench coach last season.
Eiland was hired as the pitching coach. Amaro will become the first base coach and outfield instructor.