Justin Verlander has been named the American League’s Cy Young award winner, according to an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He received all 30 first-place votes.
Like Sandy Alcantara in the National League, Verlander took the award in a clean sweep. The respective dominance of each player has look since taken away much of the intrigue as to who would actually claim the honors, and the unanimous finishes paint a picture of their excellence. Verlander’s elbow blew out during his first start of 2020, eventually leading to a Tommy John surgery that kept him out of action until this year. He returned to the Astros on a $25MM guarantee last winter and, despite being 39 years old, showed no ill effects of such a major procedure.
Verlander returned to make 28 starts, staying healthy until a late-season injured list stint with a calf strain. He tossed 175 innings with an AL-best 1.75 ERA, a mark nearly a half-run lower than that of the next-best finisher. Even with the late-season IL stay, the former MVP placed 16th in the Junior Circuit in innings. He finished seventh among those with 100+ frames in strikeout rate (27.8%) and walk percentage (4.4%) alike.
It’s the third career Cy Young nod for the future Hall of Famer. Verlander becomes the 11th pitcher in big league history to claim the award three times, joining former teammate Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw as the only active players to do so. He earned his ninth All-Star nod midseason and led his league in ERA for the second time.
Verlander’s Cy Young adds to an already illustrious resume, while his stellar season positions him for a fascinating trip to free agency. He’s presently on the open market after declining a player option with Houston for the 2023 campaign. There’s essentially no precedent for a pitcher performing this well hitting free agency heading into his age-40 season. Verlander’s sure to secure one of the loftiest per-year salaries in MLB history, and Houston owner Jim Crane said last night he’s looking to top Scherzer’s three-year, $130MM deal with the Mets from last winter.
The other finalists in the American League were Chicago’s Dylan Cease and Toronto’s Alek Manoah. Cease received 14 second-place votes to earn the runner-up finish after placing second with a 2.20 ERA in 184 innings. Manoah finished just behind him with a 2.24 ERA across 196 2/3 frames, securing seven second-place votes in his own right. Cease and Manoah joined Verlander in appearing on all 30 ballots in some capacity.
Shohei Ohtani finished in fourth place and actually secured more second-place votes (nine) than did Manoah after leading the league in strikeout rate. Innings leader Framber Valdez ended up in fifth. Others who earned at least one vote are Shane McClanahan, Shane Bieber, Nestor Cortes Jr., Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman.
Full voting breakdown available here.
Deserved
Two worthy unanimous winners today.
Congrats to JV. Dominant season coming off TJ surgery at age 39.
What an incredible athlete
Way to go JV!!!
Congratulations! Yes, now find a team that will pay you $43 million a year.
Amazing season and glad it was unanimous.
Question though, Why do they name finalists but then let people vote off the board? Shouldn’t the finalists be the top 3 after voting? Not sure if anyone knows
They are just letting you know who the top three were to build up the television aspect. They never announced that before. The writers can vote for anyone.
The finalists are the pitchers with the top 3 points totals after all 30 reps vote. Each rep ranks a top 5.
Makes sense, thank you
Probably get come back player of the year award too.
Trout maybe
But Trout played last year.
Cueto
Cueto is a tricky little minx. Always liked him. Wish the Halos would get him. Just the kind of crafty o’l vet they need.
Lol, Al didn’t want him back last year. Worst GM ever.
Mets
Never heard of him.
Well deserved guy throws gas and knows to fool hitters in the strike zone ! He’s about to be 40 and he’s absolutely top of the game right now
Should have gone to Johnny Cueto.
I’m just joking…
Cueto #2 after Cease!
1.75 vs 2.20 era, 18 wins vs 14 wins, whip was not even close. Cease only had him in strikeouts. That is why it was unanimous.
Consider the Sox defense backing up the pitcher. Mostly 1B and DH’s in the field.
Plus Cease had more starts.
If only he got the no hitter!
@LouWhitakerHOF I’m not disagreeing on Verlander over Cease, but did you really just use Wins as one of your arguments? Only thing Cease really had him on was K-rate, but that’s clearly not enough. Verlander deserved it.
Hopefully, Cease’s day will come. If he gets a better defense behind him and stops walking so many guys, he’ll win one or two of these before he’s done.
Also, agree that Whitaker should be in the Hall, along with McGriff.
@#1WhiteSoxFan, just stop, you’re making the rest of us look clueless. No, he didn’t have a great defense, but he also had the league’s highest walk rate. Compare Verlander’s WHIP to Cease’s. It’s not even close. Cease had a great year, no doubt, but Verlander was just plain better and it’s delusional to think otherwise.
I brought up wins because in 2016 Verlander won every category except for wins but Rick Porcello won the CY (22 for Porcello, 16 for Verlander).
I really wanna see this guy hit 300 wins.
Sadly, he’s going for the money which means the team he signs with can’t afford the pieces around him to get there.
What if the Dodgers sign him?
If the Dodgers sign him, they might set a record next year for all time regular season wins. Post season though?
I’m sure the Dodgers, Yankees or Mets won’t be able to afford anyone else.
He’s going to pitch another 4 years min
40mil a year
Remember when Verlanders career was considered dead after several down years with the Tigers.
I remember one down year when he had the core muscle issue.
I absolutely would not give Verlander any more than 1 guaranteed year.
Then how much are you prepared to pay him?
He’s no Nolan Ryan, or is he?
He does have 3 no-hitters…
In terms of longevity, Verlander has a shot.
Ryan never won a Cy Young, for what that’s worth. But he was still going strong in his age 44 season…
2.91 ERA, 173 IP, 203 SO, .172 AVG, 1.01 WHIP
Nolan recorded his 7th no-hitter at the age of 44, becoming the oldest player to register a no-hitter.
He threw his 6th no-hitter the year before at the age of 43.
Cy Young is the next oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter, age 41.
Nolan Ryan has 81.3 bWAR and 106.7 fWAR
Justin Verlander has 77.6 bWAR and 78.1 fWAR
Verlander is the current best pitcher in MLB at 39. Probably will get close to that 106.7 fWAR if he plays 4-5 more seasons and will clear Ryan in bWAR next year.
Interesting. Thanks for posting this info!
All clean too …. right ?
Yes true , but you can never have enough pitching lol
Nolan Ryan never had a year close to what verlander just had.
Correct but I am comparing overall careers via WAR, which is like, the best thing to use WAR for, comparing legends.
Mets6986??,
That’s mostly true but I was talking in terms of longevity.
Verlander has 3 no-hitters and 3 CY awards?
Ryan never won a CY award. On the other hand Ryan pitched over 200 innings 14 times in his career. And he pitched 300 innings or more 3 times. 324 career wins.
1981 Nolan- 1.69 ERA, 149 IP, .188 AVG, 1.12 WHIP
Of course Nolan was working without today’s shift so there would be some adjustments needed in order to compare the two fairly?
The obvious questions:
What would Verlander have done had he pitched the number of innings Nolan did and without a shift etc.?
And what would Nolan have done if he were pitching 5 or 6 innings every 6th day and with the Astros shift.
Also 1981 was a shortened season apparently. Joe Niekro led the team in innings pitched with 166.0 in 24 games.
Aaron Civale clearly robbed of his 1st of Cy Young.
Wish we could use emojis because that post deserves 3 well placed rotfl emojis, Funny, funny stuff.
Thank you outinleftfield. You shall receive a Christmas card this year.
Craven how is the weather in your neck?
Cold and sh1tty! I LOVE IT! 🙂
Hahaha Spoken like a true Alpha! Attaboy! Eat some good Salmon for me this week!
All day fam!
Congrats Justin Verlander 2022 Cy Young Award Winner!
JV’s 3rd Cy Young Award.
And, he narrowly missed a few more Cy Young Awards including 2016.
The 2016 Cy voting was a travesty, and this is coming from a Red Sox fan. JV got 14 first-place votes – Porcello got 8. Plus two idiot voters left JV off their ballots completely. JV got screwed; not only did the fans, players and experts know it, but SO DID KATE!!! And let me tell you, Kate knows when JV gets screwed,
What an amazing season. Well deserved award. Since Crane doesn’t want to pay him, who will the reigning Cy Young winner be pitching for the next few seasons?
I think he ends up staying with the stros
The Astros.
As he should’ve. Glad to see the comeback work out like this.
Can we at least strip Noga of his vote? Cease fifth place? That is hometown bias.
I was there in May when we tagged him for 4 dongs. He got his revenge though several times over. Well deserved. I’m not a fan but the cap is tipped.
Too bad it would have been his 4th if that Porcello guy didn’t win that year is what his wife must be saying right now.
Kate is out with Pete Davidson tonight…
Ye approves
Who’s giving the 2 year 90
3 years 300,000,000! Plus Kate gets to fly on the team jet.
Dodgers got all the money and are in ring-or-bust mode….
Just haven’t heard ANY chatter about JV. Who knows. I suppose the man could end up anywhere practically…Imagine Max, JV, and deGrom on the same staff?
Pinetar Verlander
Pinetar everyone…
Appropriate picks, both winners. Some of the secondary voting is dubious, but that’s not uncommon.
With all his World Series success, I find it hard to believe he can’t get $43 million from some MLB team out there.
He’ll get paid, but I would guess that the number of years will determine where he signs. My guess is that somebody is going to offer him four years, despite his age. He says he wants to pitch until he’s 45.
I would offer him 6 years @ $30MM with incentives each year that would top out at $45MM.each year. As he ages, his pay will decline or he will be worth every penny of $45MM.
I agree I don’t think he’ll get 4 years. But I guess 3 years, and $43 million a year isn’t out of the question though. Early favorites Dodgers, Yankees, and the Mets.
What a once-in-a-generation player. No one like him before or since. Justin Verlander is better than Nolan Ryan (and he’s almost caught him in WAR).
When he joins up with fellow elite superstar veteran Clayton Kershaw next year and beyond, the Dodgers will always be must-see tv.
I think the Astros offer the best path to 300 wins for him, I hope he stays, and can get to that. He’ll always be a favorite to Detroit fans.
I knew I should not have sold all his rookie baseball cards two years ago!
I’m glad he left Detroit when he did, well deserved WS rings and awards since leaving, he would have rotted away in Detroit.
Does he still smash Taco Bell before every start?
Kewldood, who smashed taco bell before starts??? Haha
It’s a great alternative to colonics
Ohtani getting more 2nd place votes than Manoah, shows just how bad this process has become. Ohtani should win the ‘mlb agenda’ award. Oh crap I just gave them an idea.
Wins mean something.
I think the Yanks should test him with a 2//$100 deal. He brings the obvi but my reason is because I think he can unlock whatever Cole is missing from his Houston days. Keep Cole as the #1 but have Verlander follow him. I also think he can do a lot for Severino, German and Cruz in terms of leading by example and mentoring when they have questions. Be the Durant to Curry in terms of taking some of the pressure off Cole in being an ace in NY. Oh yeah…. Weakens the Astro’s a bit too.
Does it really weaken the Astros? They should still win the division and wouldn’t miss playoff Verlander. They are 6 deep on starters without him.
“Houston owner Jim Crane said last night he’s looking to top Scherzer’s three-year, $130MM deal with the Mets from last winter”
He had an amazing year yeah? But three years 130 million to pitch till he’s 43? Idk?
Ben must be thrilled.
Verlander was screwed out of the 2012 and 2016 Cy Young .Man should have 5.
……and at age 40 Verlander becomes the only actual peer of Cy Young to win the award
Very well deserved!
Dude’s a stud. For the sake of argument and I am not condoning it but it’s an interesting question. Is there a difference morally, ethically etc to extend your career by taking steroids as opposed to Tommy John surgery? The goals are the same and they are both artificially by outside forces changing someone’s physique with the intent of “extending” a career which under normal circumstances would have ended sooner. It’s an interesting argument. It’s something that occured to me when hearing folks bash a guy like Roger Clemens for wanting to basically pitch forever. Isn’t Verlander doing the same thing? For the record I vehemently oppose steerRods.
I love this train of thought and agree with it, except the end part. I do think steroids should be allowed to prevent injuries and am still mad steroid-haters are ignoring the consequences of that, which is we get to see Ken Griffey Jr ruin the second half of his career, when if he had been allowed to use specific PEDs that only prevent muscle tears and joint damage, would have seen him 800 homers. That is the reality anti-steroid people want: worse MLB product overall by not letting the best players keep themselves healthy.
The “ethics” and “morals” of the players dont matter anymore – many players supported Jan 6 and voted for 45, therefore it doesnt matter if they think something is “bad”. As a fan, I want the best players on the field, every game, at any cost outside of serious health issues, which PEDs can be created to avoid.
Do the Phillies have the money to sign him?!
Dave Dombrowski drafted Verlander.
They spent years winning together in Detroit.
Getting a World Series Championship together in Phillie
would the cherry on top of both Verlander’s and Dombrowski’s careers!!
Verlander is a great pitcher who has played on some pretty good teams but Nolan Ryan was in an entirely different level and he played on a lot of mediocre to awful teams.
He was literally a phenomenon. Unless you qualify greatness by an award that is voted on. Nolan didn’t win a Cy, because back then wins were important and his teams mostly stunk.