There was only one real option for the American League Cy Young Award in 2020: Indians ace Shane Bieber. And on Wednesday night it became official.
Bieber was unanimously awarded his first career Cy Young after garnering all 30 first-place votes from members of the BBWAA. In doing so, he became the first unanimous winner since Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
He led the majors' qualified pitchers in fWAR (3.2), ERA (1.63), Fielding Independent Pitching (2.07), strikeouts (122), Win Probability Added (3.05) and just about every major statistical category. He also had 162 swings-and-misses on pitches outside of the zone, besting second-place finisher Jacob deGrom, who had 124. Bieber's 2020 season was the first since Johan Santana's 2006 season to win the pitching triple crown by leading not only the AL but the majors in wins, ERA and strikeouts.
Sep 6, 2020; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Shane Bieber (57) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
He struck out at least eight batters in all 12 starts, passing Bob Feller's franchise-record streak to start a season from 1946, when he had at least that many strikeouts in his first nine outings. Bieber and Feller (1940) are also now the only two Indians pitchers to win the AL's pitching crown. Bieber is the ninth pitcher in baseball history and the first for the Indians to win MLB's pitching crown for both leagues.
Bieber becomes the fifth Indians pitcher in franchise history to win a Cy Young Award and the fourth since 2007, joining Gaylord Perry (1972), CC Sabathia (2007), Cliff Lee (2008) and Corey Kluber (2014, 2017).
After Bieber, the top five vote-recipients in order were the Minnesota Twins' Kenta Maeda, the Toronto Blue Jays' Hyun-Jin Ryu, the New York Yankees' Gerrit Cole and the Chicago White Sox's Dallas Keuchel.
Former Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer, who was with the Cincinnati Reds in 2020 and is now a free agent, took home the National League Cy Young Award, winning with 27 of the 30 first-place votes. The Chicago Cubs' Yu Darvish took second and the New York Mets' Jacob deGrom was third.
