Verlander, Alcantara unanimous Cy Young winners
HOUSTON » Houston’s Justin Verlander in the American League and Miami’s Sandy Alcantara in the National League were both unanimous selections for the Cy Young Award on Wednesday night.
It’s the second time the winners in both leagues were unanimous since the award began in 1956 and the first since Detroit’s Denny McLain in the AL and St. Louis’ Bob Gibson in the NL swept the voting in 1968.
The 39-year-old Verlander, who also won the award in 2019 after winning both MVP and the Cy Young in 2011, becomes the 11th player to win it three times. He also won unanimously in 2011.
Verlander led the majors with a 1.75 ERA — the lowest of his 17-year career — after missing almost all of the previous two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. He becomes the fourth AL pitcher with two unanimous victories, joining Roger Clemens (1986, 1998), Pedro Martinez (1999, 2000) and Johan Santana (2004, 2006).
Verander led the Astros to the best record in the AL, and while the postseason doesn’t count for the award, he got his first career World Series win in Game 5 as Houston beat the Phillies in six games.
Alcantara had a 2.28 ERA while pitching a major league-best 228.2 innings and six compete games. It’s the first Cy Young for the 27-year-old from the Dominican Republic, who becomes the first Marlins player to receive the honor.
Alcantara received all 30 first-place votes, the 15th time the NL has had a unanimous winner. Atlanta’s Max Fried was second with 72 points, including 10 second-place votes, and Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Julio Urías was third 66 points and seven second-place votes.
Behind Verlander, who was the 11th AL pitcher to win unanimously, was Dylan Cease of the White Sox with 97 points and 14 secondplace votes and Toronto’s Alek Manoah with 87 points and seven second-place votes. The three pitchers were named on every ballot.
Alcantara’s six complete games were the most in the majors since Chris Sale had six in 2016.
He joins Martinez (1997) as the only player born in the Dominican Republic to win the NL award. Martinez also won twice in the AL (1999, 2000) and the other Dominican winner in the AL was Bartolo Colon in 2005.
Mariners land Teoscar Hernández
SEATTLE » Teoscar Hernández was tuned into the rumors on television and social media so he wasn’t blindsided when the call came that he was moving on from Toronto.
“I kind of like was waiting for something to happen, but it’s always a surprise for a player, I think,” Hernández said.
The Seattle Mariners made one of the first big moves of the offseason Wednesday by acquiring Hernández from the Blue Jays in exchange for two pitchers.
Fresh off the team’s first playoff appearance in more than two decades, the Mariners added a slugging right-handed bat to their lineup with the move and addressed one of their offseason needs by finding a corner outfielder.
Hernández hit .267 with 25 home runs and 77 RBIs in 131 games last season for the Blue Jays and joined Mookie Betts as the only outfielders in baseball with at least 35 doubles and 25 homers. Hernández was an All-Star starter in 2021 and finished that season hitting .296 with 32 homers and 116 RBIs for Toronto.
Right-handed reliever Erik Swanson and minor league lefty Adam Macko are going back to Toronto. The Blue Jays were looking to clear salary for 2023 and also needed bullpen help with swing-and-miss stuff, which
Swanson is expected to provide.
Swanson was 3-2 with a 1.68 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 53 2/3 innings last season.
Anderson finalizes Angels deal
All-Star left-hander Tyler Anderson is moving across Los Angeles, leaving the Dodgers for a $39 million, three-year contract with the Angels on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old is coming off the best season of his major league career, going 15-5 with a 2.57 ERA for the 111-win Dodgers.