The 2018 Major League Baseball season has come to an end. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series two weeks ago. It is now time for the major awards: Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young Award, and Most Valuable Player.
On Wednesday, the American League Cy Young Award will be announced. The finalists in the American League are Cleveland Indian Corey Kluber, Houston Astro Justin Verlander, Tampa Bay Ray Blake Snell.
Corey Kluber
20-7, 2.89 ERA, 222 K
Kluber, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, set a career high in wins in 2018. He led the league with 2 complete games, 215 innings pitched, and 1.4 walks per 9 innings. Kluber had seven games with 10 or more strikeouts, twice having 10 strikeouts and no walks. He was an inning-eating machine this year, going 7 or more innings in 20 out his 33 starts.
Kluber led the Indians to a first place finish before getting swept by the Houston Astros in the ALDS. He is a 2-time Cy Young Award winner and a 3-time All-Star.
Justin Verlander
16-9, 2.52 ERA, 290 K
Verlander had “only” 16 wins, but he led the league with 34 starts, 290 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 0.902 in his 14th Major League season. He was the ace of an Astros team that finished with 103 wins in his first full season with the team. Verlander had 13 games with 10 or more strikeouts, and only had more than 1 walk in one of those games.
Verlander’s Astros finished in first place in the AL West and made it to the ALCS, where they lost to the Red Sox. He is a former Rookie of the Year, 7-time All-Star, and he won the Cy Young and MVP in 2011.
Blake Snell
21-5, 1.89 ERA, 221 K
Snell led the league with 21 wins and a 1.89 ERA. The 25 year old was the only starter on the Rays’ staff with more than 4 wins. He set career bests in games started (31), innings pitched (180.2), strikeouts (221), wins (21), runs allowed (41), ERA (1.89), and WHIP (0.974).
Snell made his first All-Star game this season where he pitched 1.2 innings giving up a solo home run and striking out 3.
Who Will Win?
This is a tough one. Kluber and Verlander had big seasons and were major contributors on first place teams. However, Snell led the league in two or the major pitching statistics and he did it on an inferior team. The AL Cy Young should go to Snell this year.