The writers didn’t seem to have much question about who the winner of the 2019 Cy Young Award would be. New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom got 29 of the 30 first place votes, good enough for 207 points. Hyun-Jin Ryu got the other first place vote, and was tied with Max Scherzer for second place with 72 points in the voting. For deGrom it is his second consecutive Cy Young Award. He threw 204.0 innings with a 2.43 ERA, 154 hits allowed, 44 walks, and a league leading 255 strikeouts.
The Cincinnati Reds weren’t shut out of the ballot this year. Sonny Gray picked up four votes for 5th place – voters hand out votes for the top five. The voters for Gray were C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, John Fay of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Jack Etkin of Forbes.com, and Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group.
Sonny Gray is the first Reds pitcher to get any votes since Johnny Cueto in 2014. That season saw Cueto as the runner up to Clayton Kershaw – Cueto got 23 of the 30 second place votes, with Kershaw sweeping all 30 of the 1st place votes. Gray finished the year with 5.6 bWAR to go along with a 2.87 ERA in 175.1 innings pitched. He allowed just 122 hits – including 17 home runs – in his 31 starts. Gray would walk 68 batters, post a 1.08 WHIP, and strike out 205 batters on the season. His performance also earned him his second All-Star game nod.
How would Ryu look slotted in behind Gray and Castillo next year? Just saying.
Given the success with sonny, I would be more intrigued by wheeler. Imagine a rotation where 2019 disco is the worst chance you have at winning? I’m all for investing in the offense, but man could this staff be filthy with one more solid piece…
Indeed. Offense needs to be addressed and will be but there are some quality starters available and we could use one quality guy in the rotation. I like Mahle as that 6th guy that slots in when someone goes down.
I agree completely. His 2019 year was one of the most consistently effective and even great seasons of any Reds pitcher in my lifetime. The won-loss record didn’t reflect it because the offense was so poor.
How good was that trade and sign? Gotta give this FO props on that one. The going rate for performance like that is $30M AAV. He’s locked up for 4 more years at just over $10M AAV. Degrom gets $120M in those same 4 years. He’s better of course, but I’m sure the FO would gladly spend that $80M savings elsewhere.
I was thinking the same thing the other day. What a move by the Reds FO. They really deserve some credit for that. But they also deserve credit for Trevor Baur, however that plays out. That story isn’t over yet so maybe it will be another great move before it’s all said and done.
Doesn’t he have a bonus clause in his contract?