ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Blake Snell won 21 games for the Rays during a remarkable breakout season, then got his biggest victory Wednesday night when he was voted the American League Cy Young award winner.
Snell finished ahead of two previous winners, Houston's Justin Verlander and Cleveland's Corey Kluber. Snell received 17 first-place votes and finished with 169 points; Verlander 13 and 154.
"It means a whole lot," Snell said on the MLB Network show. "It was something I wanted to achieve this year."
Snell, 25, is the second Ray to earn the game's most prestigious pitching award, joining David Price, who won in 2012.
Snell built a strong case with a dominant performance, leading the AL with a 1.89 ERA (third lowest in the DH era), 21 wins (vs. five losses), a .178 opponents average and .554 OPS, a 7.4 WAR per baseball-reference.com. He allowed two or fewer runs in 27 of his 31 starts and one or none in 21, winning nine straight down the stretch with a 1.03 ERA. And, of significance, posted a 9-2, 2.00 mark in 12 starts vs. the AL's top scoring and playoff bound teams, including four vs. the eventual champion Red Sox (3-0, 1.08).
Snell's work was even more impressive considering he went 5-7, 4.04 in 2017 and was twice demoted to the minors. He earned it this season, making a commitment to take his offseason and between starts work more seriously, continuing to improve his command after shifting mid-2017 to the first base side of the rubber, and refining and making more use of his curveball to make his repertoire of four above-average pitches even more impactful among the reasons, along with an accompanying surge in confidence.
By many measures, Snell compared favorably with Verlander (16-9, 2.52 ERA, .602 OPS, 6.2 bWAR) and Kluber (20-7, 2.89, .624, 5.9).
But the one area where Snell was lacking that stood out was innings, having thrown only 1802/3 over his 31 starts.
That loomed as a potential big issue with voters, 30 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, two from each AL city, as there had been only one starter to win a Cy Young in a full season with less than 200 innings in the first 63 years of the award, Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers in 2014 with 1981/3.
Snell's shortfall, compared to the 215 innings thrown by Kluber and 214 by Verlander, was due primarily to a two-week stint on the DL due to shoulder fatigue coming off his first All-Star Game appearance, plus the Rays' overall protective philosophy of handling young starters and aggressive bullpen usage.
Snell blamed himself for forcing his pitch count up with too many walks, but it was as much or more on his bosses, who kept a tight limit on his total pitches (only three games past 105) and pulled him in his first three starts off the DL after four, five (with a no-hitter) and five innings.
That was expected to be an issue in the voting, especially as Verlander made a point in several September interviews to tout the importance and value of pitching more than 200 innings, and told The Athletic this could be "a game-changing vote for the future of how pitchers are evaluated."
So Snell not only became the winner with the fewest innings as a starter, but also with the third fewest career games (74) among AL pitchers. Roger Clemens had pitched in 69 when he won in 1986 for Boston; Vida Blue in 57 when he won in 1971 for Oakland.
Also, he was the youngest since Kershaw (25) in 2013 for the Dodgers, and in the AL since Felix Hernandez (24) in 2010 for the Mariners.
Snell was the 11th straight pitcher to win after leading the AL in wins (21) and ERA (1.89), and 14th of 15 since the award was given in both leagues starting in 1967. He also joined Price as the just the second winner from an AL East team in the last 15 years.
Snell on Tuesday was named the winner of the Warren Spahn award given to the game's top lefty pitcher.
The award, based on wins, ERA and strikeouts, is given in the name of the Hall of Famer who won an MLB lefty record 363 games. This is the 20th year the Spahn award has been presented.
