*Photo from CBS Sports*
Awards week in baseball continues to roll on, as we now get to the Cy Young winners for the 2021 season. There are no surprises here. Toronto Blue Jays LHP Robbie Ray and Milwaukee Brewers RHP Corbin Burnes have won the Cy Young awards for the 2021 season, in a live announcement from the BBWAA.
Ray ran away with the award, garnering 29 of the 30 total first place votes, amassing 207 points. Yankees righty Gerrit Cole got the other first place award, and 29 second place votes, getting 123 points. In 3rd place was White Sox starter Lance Lynn, who got 11 votes for 3rd place, and 5 votes for both 4th and 5th place. Rounding out the top 5 was Boston's Nathan Eovaldi and Lynn's teammate in Chicago, Carlos Rodon.
With the win, Ray becomes the 4th Blue Jays pitcher to take home the Cy Young, and the first since Roy Halladay did it in 2003. He deserved it too, leading all AL pitchers with 248 strikeouts, and he also led the AL in ERA with 2.84, starts with 32, innings with 193 1/3, and a 1.045 WHIP. 10 of his starts also had 10 or more strikeouts, the best mark in the AL.
Despite the Cy Young being dominated by starters, White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks and Angels reliever Raisel Iglesias also got down ballot votes for Cy Young, the only two relievers to garner votes. Starters who received down ballot votes were Minnesota/Toronto's Jose Berrios, Houston's Lance McCullers Jr, and Oakland's Frankie Montas.
On the NL side, Burnes won in much tighter fashion. He got 12 first place votes, 14 second place votes, 3 votes for 3rd place, and one for 4th, finishing with 151 points. Phillies ace Zack Wheeler came just 10 points behind Burnes, getting 12 first place votes, 9 second place votes, 4 votes for both 3rd and 4th place, and one 5th place vote. Max Scherzer got the remaining 6 first place votes for a total of 113 points. Rounding out the top 5 were Walker Buehler of the Dodgers, and Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers.
The win by Burnes was the closest margin of victory in the NL Cy Young race since 2010, when the awards were expanded from the top 3 to the top 5. He's the 4th pitcher to win Cy Young without receiving the most first place votes, and the first since Tim Lincecum in 2009.
The main knock on Burnes was that he only pitched 167 2/3 innings, the lowest among the finalists, and the lowest for a Cy Young winner ever. Despite the low innings, Burnes was remarkable when he did pitch, leading the majors in ERA with 2.43, FIP with 1.63, ERA+ with 176, and a 12.6 strikeouts per 9 innings rate. He also struck out 234 hitters and had a 0.98 WHIP in his 28 starts.
Awards week wraps up with the presentation of the MVP awards on Thursday night. Shohei Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, and Marcus Semien are the AL finalists, with Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, and Fernando Tatis Jr the finalists in the NL.
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