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MLB Awards: Predicting Who Wins in 2019

Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander Each Win Their Second Cy Young Awards

Jacob-deGrom-NL-Cy-Young-Award

Mets ace Jacob deGrom was named the NL Cy Young award winner for the second consecutive season by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Wednesday night. For the second time in his 15-year career, Astros righthander Justin Verlander won the AL Cy Young.

deGrom, 31, is the 11th pitcher to win the award in back-to-back seasons, taking home 29 first-place votes, the same total he secured last year.

The AL race was much closer, with Verlander, 36, getting four more first place votes (17) than his 2019 teammate Gerrit Cole. It is the first time in AL Cy Young voting history that teammates have finished first and second in the same season.

Although it wasn't as strong as last year's campaign, deGrom was remarkable in 2019, leading the NL in strikeouts and ranking second in ERA. He ended the season with 23-consecutive scoreless innings. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he’s one of six players to post consecutive seasons with at least 250 strikeouts and an ERA below 2.50.

Verlander led MLB in wins (21) and innings pitched. He ranked second in the league with a 2.58 ERA and 300 strikeouts, finishing behind Cole in both categories. Verlander and Cole (326 strikeouts) became the second pair of teammates in MLB history to both reach 300 strikeouts in the same season (Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, 2002 Diamondbacks).

deGrom and Verlander are only the second and third former Rookie of the Year Award recipients to win more than multiple Cy Young Award, along with Tom Seaver. Verlander won the Rookie of the Year in 2006, while deGrom won it in 2014, three seasons after Verlander won both the AL MVP and Cy Young as a member of the Detroit Tigers.

Verlander and Cole were the only pitchers named on every AL ballot. Their former Astros teammate and current Rays starter, Charlie Morton, finished third.

The Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer finished tied for second in the NL voting, while Scherzer's rotation mate and World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg finished fourth.

The BBWAA’s MVP Award is set to be announced Thursday. 

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