*Photo from DraftKings Network*
Awards week is rolling right along. San Diego Padres pitcher Blake Snell and New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole were chosen as the winners of the 2023 NL and AL Cy Young awards on Wednesday night.
Both pitchers won the award convincingly, with Snell collecting 28 of a possible 30 first place votes on the NL side, and Cole winning on the AL side unanimously. Snell got 204 points in the voting while Cole got 210.
Snell wins his first NL Cy Young and second Cy Young of his career after winning in the AL in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays. He becomes just the 7th player in baseball to win the Cy Young in both leagues. Snell is a free agent this offseason.
The 30 year old Snell had a 2.25 ERA at the top of the Padres rotation, racking up 234 strikeouts over 180 innings, walking 99 hitters to lead the league. After starting the season with a 1-6 record, Snell became the first pitcher in baseball history to win the award after being at least 5 games under .500 at any point in the season.
Snell beat out San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen in the voting. Webb finished in second with one first place vote and 17 second place votes, while Gallen got one first place votes, 3 second place votes, and 11 3rd place votes.
On the AL side, Cole won unanimously over Minnesota Twins pitcher Sonny Gray and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman, with Gray coming in second and Gausman in 3rd. Cole finished as a runner up for the Cy Young in 2019 and 2021, with this being Cole's first victory in the voting.
2023 was a season full of highs for Cole on the mound. He had a 2.63 ERA and racked up 222 strikeouts over 209 innings and 33 starts. Since joining the Yankees, Cole has 816 strikeouts in 664 innings pitched.
Cole becomes the first Yankees pitcher to win a Cy Young award since Roger Clemens did so in 2001, and he joins Ron Guidry as the only Yankees pitchers to win the award unanimously. He's the 6th Yankees pitcher to win the award after leading the majors in on base percentage by opposing hitters and WHIP while being tied for first in shutouts and quality starts.
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