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The winner of the 2020 American League Cy Young Award comes as no surprise. Cleveland ace Shane Bieber took the top honors unanimously.
Bieber, 25, was by far the best pitcher in the AL during the 2020 regular season. In 12 starts, he was 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA (281 ERA +), 0.87 WHIP and 122 strikeouts against 21 goals in 77 1/3 innings, good for 3.3 WAR in one touch in 1/3 of a normal season. He led the AL in wins, win percentage, ERA, FIP, ERA +, hit rate (5.4 hits per nine innings allowed), strikeout rate, WAR and several other metrics.
Kenta Maeda of the Twins was second after leading 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 80 strikeouts in 66 2/3 innings. Hyun-jin Ryu of the Blue Jays was third after going 5-2 with a 2.69 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 72 strikeouts in 67 innings. Interestingly, Ryu and Maeda were part of the Dodgers in 2019.
Bieber’s trip to the top was quick. He joined the Cleveland rotation at age 23 in 2018 after never seeing a list of the top 100 prospects. He was doing fine as a rookie, but nothing special. In 2019, he became an All-Star and earned All-Star Game MVP honors. He finished fourth in Cy Young’s vote last year, although he didn’t finish seriously thinking about winning the award and didn’t get a vote for the top spot.
This time around, Bieber got all 30 first place BBWAA voters’ votes for this award (two per chapter from each AL market). Cy Young’s most recent unanimous winner was when Clayton Kershaw made it to the NL side in 2014. The last time an AL pitcher won this unanimous award was in 2011, when Justin Verlander, then of the Tigers, did it. Bieber becomes the eighth pitcher to do so in the AL (Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens have all done it twice).
Regarding the Cleveland Indians franchise, recent history is rich here. Only Gaylord Perry (1972) had won a Cy Young award with the club during the 2006 season, but since then:
2007 – CC Sabathia
2008 – Cliff Lee
2014 – Corey Kluber
2017 – Corey Kluber
2020 – Shane Bieber
A franchise that has won five wins by four different pitchers in 14 years isn’t too shabby. A former Cleveland pitcher also took home the NL Cy Young honors on Wednesday night, while Trevor Bauer took home the NL award.
A full breakdown of the votes – including each author’s ballots – can be found here. Each ballot must be returned before the start of the playoffs. Each voter chooses the top five in order, awarding seven points for a first-place vote, four for second, three for third, two for fourth, and one point for a fifth-place vote.
Here are the top 10 and their end point totals:
- Bieber, 210
- Maeda, 92 years old
- Ryu, 51 years old
- Gerrit Cole, Yankees, 50
- Dallas Keuchel, White Sox, 46
- Lance Lynn, Rangers, 22
- Lucas Giolito, White Sox, 18
- Chris Bassitt, athletics, 10
- Dylan Bundy, angels, 5
- Liam Hendriks, A, 5
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