Baseball hopes for new Japan posting deal by early December

Indian receives 28 first-place votes in AL; National gets 27 in NL

Max Scherzer heard his name and thrust his arms in the air, shouting and smiling big before turning to kiss his wife.

Corey Kluber, on the other hand, gulped once and blinked.

Two aces, two different styles — and now another Cy Young Award for each.

The animated Scherzer of the Washington Nationals coasted to his third Cy Young, winning Wednesday for the second straight year in the National League. He breezed past Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, drawing 27 of the 30 firstplace votes in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Kluber’s win was even more of a runaway. The Cleveland Indians ace took 28 first-place votes, easily outpacing Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox for his second AL Cy Young.

Scherzer yelled “Yes!” when his award was announced on MLB Network, a reaction in keeping with his expressive reputation. He showed that intensity often this year, whether he was cursing under his breath like a madman during his delivery or demanding — also with expletives — that manager Dusty Baker leave him in the game.

Just a little different than the pitcher they call “Klubot.” Kluber was stoic as ever when announced as the AL winner. He swallowed hard but otherwise didn’t react, only showing the hint of a smile moments later when answering questions.

Not that he wasn’t thrilled. “Winning a second one maybe, for me personally, kind of validates the first one,” Kluber said.

Scherzer’s win moves him into rare company. He’s the 10th pitcher with at least three Cy Youngs, and among the other nine, only Kershaw and Roger Clemens aren’t in the Hall of Fame — Kershaw is not yet eligible.

“That’s why I’m drinking a lot of champagne tonight,” Scherzer said.

Scherzer earned the NL honor last year with Washington and the 2013 American League prize with Detroit.

“This one is special,” he said. “When you start talking about winning three times, I can’t even comprehend it at this point.”

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, and in an era noted for declining pitcher durability, he eclipsed 200 innings for the fifth straight season. He had to overcome a variety of ailments to get there, and Washington’s training staff was high on his thank-you list.

“Everybody had a role in keeping me out on the field,” he said. “I’m very thankful for all their hard work.”

Kluber missed a month of the season with back pain and still easily won the AL award over Sale and third-place finisher Luis Severino of the New York Yankees. 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 and is the 19th pitcher to win multiple times.

ORLANDO, FLA.» Major League Baseball hopes to put in place a new posting system agreement with Japan by early December, a deal that would allow star pitcher-outfielder Shohei Otani to start negotiations with major-league teams.

MLB chief legal officer Dan Halem said a new framework has been agreed to with Nippon Professional Baseball and has been given to the Major League Baseball Players Association for its approval.

“I’m hopeful that we can wrap up our discussions with the union soon, maybe within a week,” he said Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings.

After that, MLB owners would hold a conference call for an approval vote.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll have a new system in place in which players can be posted by the NPB in early December,” he said.

Otani, 23, 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 Corey Kluber, Indians Sale, Red Sox Severino, Yankees Carrasco, Indians Verlander, Astros Kimbrel, Red Sox Santana, Twins Stroman, Blue Jays 28 2 C. J. Craig Ervin M. - 2 28 C. J. Craig Ervin M. - - Chris - - 20 6 1 16 3 6 6 2 -- -- - Luis 1 8 11 5 3 2 204 126 73 43 32 27 3 2 having different amounts to spend.

Halem also hopes to have a separate deal with the players’ association by mid-January on pace-of-play changes such as a pitch clock and limits on mound visits. Baseball is considering split screens to allow commercials on broadcasts as half-innings start.

“Proposals have been exchanged and inperson meetings have taken place,” he said. “I would characterize those discussions as being in the beginning. We have a ways to go. In terms of the calendar, I think we would need to complete those discussions by mid-January in order to effectively roll them out and explain them to umpires and our clubs.”

Owners have the right for next season to unilaterally institute a 20-second pitch clock and limit a catcher to one mound visit per pitcher each inning, but commissioner Rob Manfred prefers to reach an agreement with the union in time for next season.

“Both discussions are ‘ongoing’ and we remain ‘optimistic,’ ” union head Tony Clark wrote in an email to The Associated Press.