Washington Nationals: Jacob deGrom beats Max Scherzer for Cy Young
By Blake Finney
Unfortunately, a three-peat just wasn’t meant to be for Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer, as Jacob deGrom took home his first NL Cy Young Award.
Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer sadly won’t be taking home his third straight National League Cy Young Award. It was announced on Wednesday evening that Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets was able to win the first Cy Young of his career.
The final voting showed that deGrom was almost able to clear the board in terms of first-place votes. He got 29 votes, compared to Scherzer’ one, while Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola got none and finished a distant third.
Just like his teammate Juan Soto, it’s not a knock on Scherzer that he couldn’t take home the hardware. The right-hander finished the year with a stellar 18-7 record to go with a 2.53 ERA and a historic 300 strikeouts.
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It just so happens that the Mets starter was able to have an even more historic year and was able to steal a march on the Nats ace. deGrom ended 2018 with a 1.70 ERA despite just a 10-9 record, thanks to the Mets bats seemingly going missing whenever he took the mound.
Overall, it was the right decision for deGrom to win the award, as the main knock on his candidacy was the lack of wins on his record. A topic of great debate in the baseball community, a pitching win isn’t so much an indicator of a single player’s performance, but more the team around him.
With all three of this year’s finalists set for another round in the NL East in 2019, it’s going to be yet another fascinating race for the award next year. Nationals fans will hope that Max Scherzer can once again add to his Hall of Fame resume with his fourth Cy Young that helps steer the team back to the postseason.
The American League Cy Young was a much more hotly contested award, but Tampa Bay Rays starter Blake Snell also grabbed his first honor. Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber just missed out as Snell took the award by a hair over the Houston Astros ace by just 15 points.
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Unfortunately, the Washington Nationals come out of MLB’s award season without a major award winner for the first time since 2014. Hopefully, that will change next season when the likes of Scherzer, Victor Robles, and Anthony Rendon hope to compete for their respective honors.