Ray, Burnes simply the best
Jays lefty, Brewers ace vault into ranks of elite with comeback seasons
In this Year of the Pitcher, both Robbie Ray and Corbin Burnes completed their own kind of comebacks.
Ray rebounded from a dismal season that saw him take a rare pay cut to win the AL Cy Young Award with Toronto while Burnes returned from an early bout of COVID-19 with Milwaukee to win the NL’s top pitching prize Wednesday.
“Everyone has their story,” Burnes said during a conference call.
Burnes led the majors with a 2.43 ERA and edged out Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler. They both got 12 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, but Burnes drew 14 seconds to Wheeler’s nine.
Burnes pitched 167 innings, the fewest for a Cy Young-winning starter in a non-shortened season, and the righthander struck out 234. Wheeler fanned 247 — one shy of Ray’s big league-leading total — and topped the majors with 2131⁄3 innings.
“Everyone’s case,” Burnes said, “was different.”
Ray was best in the AL with a 2.84 ERA and 1931⁄3 innings. That came after a pandemic-shortened 2020 when the lefthander went a combined 2-5 with a 6.62 ERA for Arizona and the Blue Jays and issued the most walks in the majors.
“I knew … I was going to have to put in some hard work,” Ray said, adding, “I knew I wanted to make changes.”
Max Scherzer, who pitched for Los Angeles and Washington, finished third in the NL and Dodgers ace Walker Buehler was fourth.
Ray got 29 first-place votes and became the first Blue Jay to win since the late Roy Halladay in 2003. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole got the other top vote and finished second, and White Sox righthander Lance Lynn was third.
Ray went 13-7 in 32 starts and helped keep Toronto in playoff contention until the last weekend. Having turned 30 last month, the award sets him up well — a free agent, he turned down an $18.4 million qualifying offer from Toronto earlier Wednesday.
“I’m enjoying free agency,” he said. “The process is a lot of fun.”
Ray said Toronto is “still in the conversation.”
“Obviously, I love Toronto, but we’ll see where things go,” he said.
Burnes was 11-5 and an All-Star for the NL Central champion Brewers. In his first season as a full-time starter, Burnes struck out a record 58 before issuing his first walk. He tied the major league mark by fanning 10 in a row against the Cubs in August.
Burnes combined with closer Josh Hader on a nohitter against Cleveland in September. Burnes struck out 14 over eight innings in that game — it was the record ninth no-hitter in the majors this season.
Burnes had an 8.82 ERA in 28 relief appearances and four starts in 2019, then was 4-1 with a 2.11 ERA during the virus-shortened season when he was hampered by an oblique strain. He came back to lead the majors with 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings this year.
“You always have to evolve,” he said.