- Cole is the first Yankee to win the award since Roger Clemons did so in 2001
- Snell is now one of only seven players to win the award in both the AL and NL
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New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole was named the unanimous winner of the American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday.
It is the first time in his 11-year career that Cole has been named a Cy Young winner. During his career he came close to winning the award several times before receiving all 30 votes this time.
The top right-handed player finished the season with 15 wins, four losses and a 2.63 ERA in 209 innings, also leading the league in innings pitched. He became the sixth Yankees pitcher to win a Cy Young and the first since Roger Clemens in 2001.
On the other hand, Blake Snell was named the winner of the National League Cy Young Award after leading the majors in ERA for the San Diego Padres.
Snell was the AL Cy Young Award recipient in 2018 while pitching for Tampa Bay. He joined Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer as the only pitchers to win in both leagues.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was unanimously named the winner of the American League Cy Young award
Padres starter Blake Snell was also named winner of the National League Cy Young award
The free-agent lefty was chosen first on 28 of 30 ballots. San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb finished second and Zac Gallen of the NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks was third.
Snell shook off a terrible start to the season, going 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 180 innings over 32 appearances for a disappointing Padres team that finished 82-80 despite having the third-highest payroll in baseball.
He was 1-6 with a 5.40 ERA after losing to Boston on May 19, then dominated the rest of the way despite topping the Majors with 99 walks this year.
Taking advantage of his 90-90 mph speed and sweeping curve, Snell won eight of his last nine decisions and didn’t allow a run in five of his last six starts – including the last three.
Snell gave up just 5.75 hits per nine innings, by far the best mark in the majors. All those stingy numbers while he was on the mound were more than enough to beat Webb (11-13, 3.25 ERA) and Gallen (17-9, 3.47), who each logged at least 210 innings. Both received one first-place vote.
The four previous San Diego pitchers to win the Cy Young Award were Randy Jones (1976), Perry (1978), reliever Mark Davis (1989) and Jake Peavy (2007).
Minnesota Twins right-hander Sonny Gray finished second with 20 second-place votes, and Kevin Gausman of the Toronto Blue Jays finished third in the American League race.