Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays and Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets are Major League Baseball’s 2018 Cy Young Award winners after posting the best overall pitching season in their respective leagues.

Snell narrowly beat out Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander with 17 first place votes and 169 total points as opposed to Verlander’s 13 first-place votes and 154 total points. Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber finished far behind the two in third-place after garnering 71 points.  Also receiving votes were Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox, Gerrit Cole of the Houston Astros, Trevor Bauer of the Cleveland Indians, Blake Treinen of the Oakland Athletics, Edwin Díaz of the Seattle Mariners, and Luis Severino of the New York Yankees.

Snell became the second Rays’ pitcher to ever receive the award, joining David Price who won it in 2012. Snell had a stellar season in which he led Major League Baseball with 21 wins while posting a 1.89 ERA with 221 strikeouts and 64 walks in 180 2/3 innings. It is clear to see why Snell won the award.

While the American League Cy Young race was no blowout with Justin Verlander putting up an incredible season, at the end of the day, Snell had a better year and deserved the award.

deGrom, on the other hand, was the runaway winner of the National League Cy Young Award, receiving 29 of 30 possible first-place votes with 207 total points. Washington Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer received one first-place vote and garnered 123 total points. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Aaron Nola finished in third place with 86 points. Kyle Freeland of the Colorado Rockies, Patrick Corbin of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miles Mikolas of the St. Louis Cardinals, Josh Hader of the Milwaukee Brewers, Mike Foltynewicz of the Atlanta Braves, and Jon Lester of the Chicago Cubs also received votes but were not in serious contention for the award.

deGrom’s 2018 season was the stuff of legends. With Mets players dropping like flies due to injuries (It’s the Mets, what do you expect?), deGrom made it through the whole year and pitched like a true superstar. deGrom put up a Major League-best 1.70 ERA along with 269 strikeouts and 46 walks over 217 innings. While deGrom’s win record was a mere 10-9, that is mainly a Mets problem, not a deGrom problem. As a matter of fact, deGrom was so dominant in 2018, if the Mets scored four runs per game every time deGrom started, deGrom would have a 30-0 record for the season. It is saddening the deGrom received more support from the voters than his own teammates.

2018 marks just the third time in major league history in which the two Cy Young Award winners finished the season with an ERA below 2.00. The other two took place in 1968 (National League Bob Gibson 1.12, American League Denny McLain 1.96) and 1972 (National League Steve Carlton 1.97, American League Gaylord Perry 1.92).

Make sure to tune in tomorrow for the American League MVP Award results.