Padres’ Blake Snell, Yankees’ Gerrit Cole win Cy Young Awards
Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres and Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees both secured Cy Young Awards.
Blake Snell secured his second Cy Young Award in the National League, making him the seventh player, and the second left-hander, to achieve this honor in both leagues. His initial win was with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018. This time, the 30-year-old San Diego Padres starter finished the 2024 season with a 14-9 record, an MLB-leading 2.25 ERA, and 180 innings pitched. Impressively, he allowed the fewest hits per nine innings (5.8) but led the majors in walks with 99. Meanwhile, New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole clinched his first Cy Young Award unanimously after consistently ranking in the top five for the honor in previous years.
Being the third pitcher to achieve this feat, Blake Snell secured the Cy Young Award while leading his league in walks, following in the footsteps of Bob Turley in 1958 and Early Wynn in 1959. Additionally, Snell claimed the top spot in opponent slugging percentage with .286 and ranked second in strikeout percentage at 31.5%.
Blake Snell, now a free agent, set a new record for the fewest innings per start (5.6) among Cy Young winners, surpassing his own mark of 5.8 innings in 2018. This accomplishment adds him to the list of 22 pitchers who have won the award multiple times. In the competition for the award, Snell outperformed Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants and Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks, securing 28 out of 30 first-place votes, while Webb and Gallen each received one first-place vote.
| PLAYER | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | 5TH | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blake Snell, SD | 28 | 2 | — | — | — | 204 |
| Logan Webb, SF | 1 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 86 |
| Zac Gallen, AZ | 1 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 68 |
| Spencer Strider, ATL | — | 6 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 64 |
| Justin Steele, CHI | — | 1 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 32 |
| Zack Wheeler, PHL | — | — | 4 | 5 | 6 | 28 |
| Kodai Senga, NYM | — | — | 3 | 3 | — | 15 |
| Corbin Burnes, MIL | — | 1 | — | 2 | 5 | 13 |
Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider secured the fourth spot in the voting, while Chicago Cubs left-hander Justin Steele claimed the fifth position. Gerrit Cole, aged 33, emerged as the unanimous winner of the AL Cy Young Award with an impressive record of 15-4, boasting an AL-leading 2.63 ERA and pitching a league-leading 209 innings. Cole also topped the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.8) and WHIP (0.981). Notably, he became the second overall No.1 pick to achieve this accolade, following David Price in 2012.
Cole’s journey to this victory involved a fourth-place finish in the NL Cy Young voting in 2015 during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Subsequently, he consistently ranked in the top five from 2018 to 2024. The six-time All-Star had previously been the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2019 as a Houston Astros member and in 2024 with the New York Yankees.
In the Cy Young race, Cole surpassed competition from the Minnesota Twins’ Sonny Gray and Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman, securing all 30 first-place votes. Baltimore Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish claimed the fourth spot, while Seattle Mariners veteran Luis Castillo finished fifth.
