As the early days of MLB’s offseason continue, here are three things for MLBTR readers to look out for today…
1. Cy Young Awards to be announced:
MLB’s awards season continues this evening as the results of Cy Young award voting in both leagues are set to be announced at 5pm CT tonight on MLB Network. In the American League, Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole is widely considered the favorite for the award after leading the AL in ERA (2.63), Games Started (33), Innings Pitched (209), ERA+ (165), and WHIP (0.981). Twins veteran Sonny Gray, who posted a 2.79 ERA in 184 innings across 32 starts this season, and Blue Jays righty Kevin Gausman, who led the AL with 237 strikeouts to go along with his 3.16 ERA and 2.97 FIP in 185 innings of work over 31 starts, are the other finalists in the AL.
The race for the NL award is somewhat murkier. Left-hander Blake Snell, who pitched for the Padres in 2023 before hitting the open market earlier this month, is considered by most to be the favorite for the award. Snell led the majors with an excellent 2.25 ERA in 180 innings of work across 32 starts, with an excellent 182 ERA+ that also led the majors. That said, Snell’s eye-popping 13.3% walk rate and ten starts where he failed to record an out in the sixth inning are both blemishes that could dissuade some voters. Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen, who helped lead Arizona to the World Series this year with a 3.47 ERA and 3.26 FIP across 34 starts and 210 innings of work, and Giants righty Logan Webb, who led the majors with 216 innings of work across 33 starts and posted an NL-best 3.6% walk rate, are the other finalists in the NL this year.
2. Will Quantrill reach free agency?
The Guardians designated right-hander Cal Quantrill for assignment yesterday rather than pay him a raise in arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a 2024 salary of $6.6MM. It was a somewhat unexpected move; while Quantrill struggled badly in 2023 amid shoulder issues, he combined for a 3.16 ERA and 4.10 FIP across 336 innings of work across the 2021-22 campaigns while swinging between the rotation and the bullpen. Now the Guardians will have a final opportunity to attempt to work out a trade involving Quantrill or expose him to outright waivers.
That being said, it’s possible the widespread need for starting pitching around the league and the increase to the price of pitching in recent years could spur additional interest in Quantrill’s services. It would hardly be a shock if a club preferred two years of team control over Quantrill at an arbitration-level rate to the pricier commitments bounce-back starters like Noah Syndergaard (one year, $13MM) and Sean Manaea (two years, $25MM) received on the open market last offseason.
3. MLBTR Chat today:
With the offseason ramping up, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a chat with readers today at 1pm CT to tackle questions about free agency, trades and more. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to participate live and to read a transcript after the chat is complete.
They need to vote for awards after the Postseason. Your “It’s a regular season award” take is immediately dismissed, turn around and walk away. Look me dead in the eye with a straight face and tell me you’d rather have Blake Snell over Zac Gallen or Logan Webb in a must-win game. An overwhelming majority of must-win games are in the Postseason. No one cares that you clinched a Wild Card game the last day of the season (a game your team lost), for example. When splitting hairs, including postseason work that year could help be a deciding factor.
The margin between Snell, Webb, and Gallen is razor-thin, and I wouldn’t be mad if any of the 3 won it the same way I’d be mad if Gerritt Cole didn’t win the AL Award, but the above playoff separation would (in my opinion) give it to Gallen
That would be dumb.
There are already LCS and WS MVP awards.
The Cy Young award is for the regular season.
Time after time, the best pitchers in the league don’t make the post season.
“Yeah Rick Porcello won the Cy Young Award, but I’d rather have Justin Verlander in a must-win game.” -BBWAA in 2016
See how asinine that sounds? Why not just give it to Verlander?
Just about no one would argue that Verlander deserved the Cy Young award that year, but that’s because Verlander had better overall regular season stats when compared to Porcello.
But…you’re just making that quote up
I’ve been saying since Porcello got the award that Verlander deserved it. Porcello stole it from him, and yes, I’m a Sox fan.
Name the last 10 LCS and WS MVPs without looking it up
It is absolutely assanine that Strider isn’t one of the finalists. The only pitcher in the majors with 20 wins, led the majors in Ks with nearly 300, and the Braves wouldn’t have had the best record in bb without him. He was better than both Webb and Gallen.
@avenger65 – Strider was great, no doubt about it.
fWAR, bWAR, ERA, FIP, ERA+, K/9, BB/9, WHIP, GS, Inn, W
4.9, 5.5, 3.25, 3.16, 130+, 8.08, 1.29, 1.07, 33, 216.0, 11 Webb
5.9, 4.3, 3.61, 3.15, 119+, 9.94, 1.83, 1.08, 32, 192.0, 13 Wheeler
4.1, 6.0, 2.25, 3.44, 180+, 11.70, 4.95, 1.19, 32, 180.0, 14 Snell
5.2, 4.3, 3.47, 3.26, 125+, 9.43, 2.01, 1.12, 34, 210.0, 17 Gallen
5.5, 3.4, 3.86, 2.85, 115+, 13.55, 2.80, 1.09, 32, 186.2, 20 Strider
Realistic candidates for NL Cy Young in order of combined f/b WAR.
martras: You lost me at fWAR. Anyway, I still can’t believe Strider wasn’t a candidate with his wins, Ks and value to his ball club.
Wins are a team stat. Strider received the most run support. By far.
His teammates had far more value to Strider than he did to them.
He allowed nearly 4 ER per 9 IP. They gave him 6.5 runs per start.
I’m not a voter in the BWAA, but I’d be surprised if none of the old school writers who are voting value wins at all. Happily, wins are certainly not a big part of the equation anymore.
ERA is less valuable than it used to be, but it certainly seems like it’s still “king” these days.
If you care more about postseason success that’s what the ALCS/NLCS and World Series MVP awards are for. Penalizing players that weren’t able to make the postseason doesn’t make sense as the Cy Young award is NOT a team award but is in fact an award for a singular player.
It doesn’t penalize a player. No one in the AL did anything close to challenge Gerritt Cole for the award. The NL is closer and could be a swaying factor.
Also, Ohtani vs Seager is more interesting if you include the postseason, because as it is, any writer that votes for Seager over Ohtani should be kicked out of BBWAA
I despise Cole, but he definitely deserves to win.
BizzyDat: It absolutely penalizes a player that doesn’t make the playoffs. Say that Snell won 20 games in the regular season to Gallen’s 17. Snell didn’t pitch in the WS. Gallen did. If Gallen pitches and wins 5 games in the PO, he would have 22 to Snell’s 20. Gallen wins the 2023 MVP award and the Cy Young. Like a couple of previous posters said, the MVP and Cy Young are rewarding a player for a 162 game season. If Cole went 0-5 in the PO, would you take the Cy Young away from him after a great regular season? The format of the PO is much different than the regular season. Acuna deserves the MVP for 162 games. Does that change because he didn’t”t do well in the PO? No. Same with Betts.
Yes. I absolutely would take the CYA from Cole if he went 0-5. Kidding me?
Acuna (my NL MVP) would normally get dinged for not hitting in the Postseason, but Mookie and Freddie and Matt Olson didn’t hit either, so he gets bailed out in a razor thin race
I can see Strider as a finalist in your earlier post, but again, it’s razor-thin margin with him and 3 other guys, and there’s only 3 finalists. Leave Logan Webb with the short straw instead of Strider because Strider almost K-ed 300 and won 20, but I’m still giving it to Gallen
Really had my fill of your level of stupid. If you don’t like it call Manfred and stop filling up this board with moronic statements.
The Cy Young is not a one win award. It’s an accumulation over 162 on who had the biggest impact on the league.
It is a regular season award & has nothing to do with the postseason.
Would I rather have someone who was more likely to give up 2 runs, or give up 3 runs? The math is too hard
It’s a regular season award
It isn’t the “must win game” award. And that isn’t the definition of who the best pitcher in a given season is. If we followed your logic, there would be multiple seasons where the Cy Young winner was a pitcher who was hurt for most of the season and came back for the last few weeks.
Name the last 10 LCS/World Series MVPs without looking it up
Name the last 10 Cy Young winners without looking it up.
Verlander a couple times plus other times where including postseason performance would have gotten him the award from whoever robbed him, Kershaw twice, Porcello who robbed Verlander and Porcello’s terrible Division Series start could have tipped it in Verlander’s favor, Kluber snuck a couple he didn’t deserve it because the AL Central sucks, Aclantara, Bieber won it but shouldn’t have see Kluber explanation, Bauer during the Mickey Mouse season same as Bieber, Blake Snell in the AL, Scherzer and DeGrom possibly twice each, Dallas Keuchel…. and whoever I missed.
Fwiw I only remember Seager for WS MVP because he won it about 45 minutes ago and Steve Pearce because the Red Sox won it all
“and whoever I missed” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Tbh it seems like you are just mad that Verlander didn’t win it every year.
Justin is that you? Is this a burner account?
No, this is Kate Upton’s burner
Okay, I named 16 possible CYAs out of 20. If 15 of the 16 are correct I would say mid-range lifting. Let’s go look
I missed Robbie Ray and Scherzer in the AL (the two I mentioned were in the NL), and Corbin Burnes and Jake Arrietta in the NL. 16 for 20
Who should have won in 2014 and 2017 instead?
Whoever’s team didn’t play 76 Games vs Kansas City, Detroit, the White Sox, or Minnesota
Would listen to arguing against Verlander’s AL wins (the one not in Houston) but I think his greatness was enough to cover that half his team’s games (half his potential starts) were against the worst division in Baseball at the time
The average OPS+ in the ALC was 99 in 2014 and 101 in 2017. If you exclude the Indians, it was 98 and 102. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference anyway. They played the NLW both seasons.
BizzyDat: I don’t”t think you met you’re own criteria of the last ten Cy Young winners, in each league remember. That’s 20. Baseball Reference is available if you need some help.
I named 16 of them and looked up the 4 I missed in later comments
It’s Ben Verlander, the most annoying brother outside of Jackson Mahomes
“Verlander a couple times plus other times where including postseason performance would have gotten him the award from whoever robbed him, Kershaw twice, Porcello who robbed Verlander and Porcello’s terrible Division Series start could have tipped it in Verlander’s favor, Kluber snuck a couple he didn’t deserve it because the AL Central sucks, Aclantara, Bieber won it but shouldn’t have see Kluber explanation, Bauer during the Mickey Mouse season same as Bieber, Blake Snell in the AL, Scherzer and DeGrom possibly twice each, Dallas Keuchel…. and whoever I missed.”
.1 and 2 “Verander a couple times…”
.3 and 4 “Kershaw twice”
.5. “Porcello who robbed Verlander…”
.6 and 7 “Kluber snuck a couple…”
8. Alcantara
9. Bieber
10. Bauer
11. Blake Snell in the AL
.12, 13, 14, 15 Scherzer and DeGrom twice
16. Keuchel
.17-20 “And whoever I missed”
16 out of 20. That’s not “heavy lifting”
No this is Patrick
(not Mahomes)
On a fun note, was Quantrill bad enough last year that Rob Refsnyder would be enough from Boston? I know Cleveland needs OFs BAD (Myles Straw is on the short list of players I think I could beat in a fight), but I don’t know if Quantrill’s injury is serious enough to return so little in a trade
The fact that Cleveland cut ties with him for 6.6 million should scare everyone a little. You can’t find a viable sp for that price. That’s cheap for a backend starter
Yeah, that’s scary, but a $6 mil lotto ticket isn’t an egregious mount. That was why I only offered up Refsnyder and not, say, Verdugo
You can never have too much pitching, especially the way injuries have been piling up the past several years. Unless he’s headed for surgery, what team wouldn’t consider $6.6 mill. and a low-level prospect a reasonable cost for an extra arm (apparently Cleveland disagrees)?
Same as Barlow and $7.1 million in San Diego. I’d pay Quantrill in Boston even if I had to wait until 2025 for him to actually pitch. I wouldn’t pay Barlow that amount myself, but someone in the market would
You can never have enough pitching is actually false. You can never have enough “good” pitching. You can definitely have too much bad pitching. 🙂
Be careful what you wish for. Quantrill could become the next Noah Syndergaard.
I don’t think injuries are the biggest issue with Quantrill. He struggled badly in the WBC, and that carried over to the regular season. Refsnyder would be enough for me, but CLE seems to feel just getting him off the 40-man and saving $6.6M is the goal here. At this point the fans are hopeful to get something other than cash and/or relief for a serviceable SP.
Very suspicious for CLE to just drop him. This very much seems like a AA type of move. Pick him up, stash him on the 60 day IL and let him get surgery(if he needs it), bring him back in 2025, full health.
They have to protect players in from the Rule 5 draft. If they believe they have prospects that have more value than Quantrill, it’s not a suspicious move at all.
BizzyDat: Yes, but can you beat Straw in the 50-yard dash?
Breaking news: non baseball about Deshaun Watson out for the year, but Tom Brady’s private plane just landed at Burke-Lakefront airport in Cleveland
Just another opening Colin Kaepernick can whine about not getting
Colin Kaepernick logic: NFL contracts are basically slavery, also you’re racist if you don’t offer me one of those contracts.
Spot on
Yea, whining? How about winning his settlement with the NFL for colluding against him? It’s funny how facts just do not matter anymore. If you were in his shoes, you’d be angry as hell, too.
Settling is not winning. Settling is an alternative mediation of a lawsuit. Many lawsuits are settled because the settlement would cost less than the legal fees to fight the case.
Kaepernick is a pathetic leftist grifter and a professional clown who couldn’t hack it in the NFL and then whined like the little sniveling infant he is while he was getting multimillion dollar endorsements from Nike for being a leftist political activist. His documentary is one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.
The NFL settled to avoid having to air their dirty laundry. It was a consensus among legal experts that collusion occurred. He won.
As for your hate-filled diatribe, blah blah blah. We’ve heard it all before. Stay angry, white man.
I’m not white, I’m Mexican you presumptuous clown.
I’ve never met a Mexican presumptuous clown. Learn how to use direct address commas, clown.
y’all love to say that Colin Kaepernick loves the spotlight and attention, yet here you fools are bringing him up in an article about Cy Young awards and Cal Quantrill. You’re about five degrees away from sanity at this point.
But he does love the spotlight and attention, does he not?
Who’s Deshaun Watson? Does he play for the A’s?
Thank you, Mute button.
Hoping the padres get Quantril back. System familiarity is rarely bad for an SP, and living in San diego does well for any human.
Living in San Diego didn’t do well for James Reece in The Terminal List.
Murky for NL Cy Young? Really? Snell will easily win the award. He definitely deserves it. Was amazing pitcher after a bad start. Better than Cole even
Oil Can: It’s just too bad that Snell’s numbers won’t have to compete against Strider’s. Once again, the media shouldn’t be allowed to decide anything.
Strider? With his high era? Strikeouts are pretty but run prevention is what sets pitchers apart
The ultimate statistic for a SP is wins. You want to win so you win your division and make the PO. I don’t care if Strider had an ERA of 10.00. He won more games than any other pitcher in the majors. He should have been nominated especially ahead of Webb
No, strider got blown up for 8 runs once and 6 runs twice in only 2 2/3 innings. Webb was MUCH better than Strider this year. Actually so was Gallen and Steele. Strider was probably 5th best this year.
avenger,
Pitchers have limited control over whether they win a game. It’s a team stat and an awful stat to use to judge an individual pitcher.
Cole and Snell. End of story.
“It’s a regular season award” is up there with trickle down economics on Boomer Takes. Yikes
Stating a fact isnt a take, much less a “Boomer Take”.
OK Boomer
I can tell you’re young and hip by reverting to a phrase that died off years ago and your mentioning of the pillar of Reaganomics.
Get off my lawn
Aren’t the votes submitted before the start of the playoffs?..
Yes. The take is to submit them after the playoffs and let bias and a good (or bad) postseason performance run its course
What leftists derisively call “trickle down economics” worked pretty well for 18 years (1982-2000) with only a mild recession in the middle. Plus it beats “trickle up poverty” like we’ve been experiencing the past 2-1/2 years with prices up 18% in that time.
Trickle up, trickle down, Left and Right confuses me. I made Ls with my fingers and the backwards L is right until I realized I throw left handed.
Politics is a bunch of blow hards chatting to hear themselves talk and accomplishing very little, like that guy on this post who said to vote for awards after the postseason, when it would only really (hopefull) sway the outcome of one Cy Young Award (Verlander > Porcello)
“blow hards chatting to hear themselves talk and accomplishing very little”
Like half the comments on this page are from you…
The joke
*insert some 1,500 feet of FAA controlled airspace and the space below it*
Eighty Raw
Goodbye. Your name is a lie because you brought politics into a baseball board. Muted.
Why do people announce this? Fun fact, no one cares who you mute.
How is it not a regular season award? The votes are taken before the Postseason. What other kind of award would it be if it is only based on how a player did in the regular season?
Nick Senzel to Cleveland for cal quintrell. Reds need a starter. Senzel can play outfield.
Senzel can’t really play the outfield, can’t stay healthy, and he can’t hit.
On pins and needles Watching Quantrell pitch, felt like he was always one pitch away from getting knocked around. On second though I guess he kinda did this year.
I’m sorry but I’m not fond of Snell averaging 5 innings a game. Call it what you want but that isn’t productive to me
I would take 180 innings pitched from any starter and call it productive.
This year, yes. But I don’t think it’s sustainable with his walk rate.
I agree.
Cole and Webb for the win please.
I mean, his only two good years of more than 130 innings are Cy Young seasons. He’s never pitched 200 innings and eclipsed 180 innings only twice. He also led the league in walks. You can’t call that a good thing