MLB 2021 Cy Young Award Winners announced

Toronto Blue Jays Robbie Ray is named the American League Cy Young winner, Milwaukee Brewers Corbin Burnes picks up the National League honor

Jeffrey MayJeff_DiarioASUpdate: Nov 17th, 2021 20:44 EST

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America has revealed the results of the voting for the Cy Young Award winners.

American League Cy Young

ROBBIE RAY

When the Blue Jays acquired Robbie Ray in a midseason trade last season and re-signed him to a modest one-year, $8 million contract last winter, it would be safe to say that expectations were pretty low. With a 6.62 ERA and the highest walk rate of any pitcher with at least 50 innings last year, Ray was considered a project in the making. A definite Wild Thing.

I'm starting a campaign for people to vote for Bull Durham. Nuke is a better pitcher than Wild Thing. Vote Bull Durham. https://t.co/w0lMvuPu6i pic.twitter.com/YtctRjnfOw

— Kyle Mace (@kylemace) April 21, 2020

But the southpaw Ray, who just turned 30, seemed to click into place this season. His 2.84 ERA was the best among qualifying pitchers in the league, and his 193 1/3 innings, 32 starts, 154 ERA+ and 1.045 WHIP were also at the top of the tree. Ray fanned an MLB-best 248 batters, but the real mark of his grabbing the season by the horns can be seen by his lowering that walk rate to just 2.4 per nine innings. Toronto pitching coach Pete Walker worked with him and got him to trust his stuff in the zone and he really pitched with confidence.

Wouldn’t be a Robbie Ray pitching performance without some grunting.Here are a few of our favorite Robbie Ray grunts from this past season😤 pic.twitter.com/DYek95L9Q8

— Cut4 (@Cut4) November 17, 2021

The fifth Blue Jay to win the award (Roger Clemens won it twice), Ray is just the ninth pitcher to win the Cy Young heading into free agency. As such, his 2022 destination is not yet known, but it is safe to say that he has made his mark up in Canada.

The 4th Cy Young Award Winner in franchise HISTORY: @RobbieRay 🏆 pic.twitter.com/F5CYbYxBE8

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) November 17, 2021

National League Cy Young

CORBIN BURNES

Burnes’ season in 2021 began with him striking out a record 58 batters before issuing his first walk. The right-hander went 11-5 with a 2.43 ERA in 167 innings across 28 starts and was the Major League leader in ERA, strikeout rate (35.6), strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.88), Fielding Independent Pitching (1.63) and barrel rate (2.9%). His FIP was the second lowest since 1969, trailing only Pedro Martinez’s 1.39 mark in 1999.

Corbin Burnes struck out 117 batters with his cutter in the 2021 regular season, so here are all 117 of his cutter strikeouts, as a treat. pic.twitter.com/VZRqSbrQzO

— Cut4 (@Cut4) November 18, 2021