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Cy Young Award recipients for 2019

Twenty-one major league pitchers have won the Cy Young Award, given to the outstanding performer in each league, twice.

Two of them were named on Wednesday and their stories could not be more different.

Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros is 36 and picked up his second award seven years after the first, which he earned with the Detroit Tigers. That’s the longest gap between a first and a second in MLB history. Verlander was last seen not winning any of his starts in the World Series lost to the Washington Nationals.

Jacob deGrom, 31, of the New York Mets won his second Cy Young, and that gives him two in a row. He’s the seventh pitcher to win it at least twice in a row and the 11th to get two straight. He ended the season with 23 consecutive scoreless innings.

DeGrom struggled early in the season but finished 11-8 with a 2.43 ERA and a league-leading 255 strikeouts in 204 innings. Verlander went 21-6, leading the American League in wins and innings (223). He finished second to teammate Gerrit Cole, the Cy Young runner-up, in ERA (2.58) and strikeouts (300).

DeGrom won fewer games (10) last year; Verlander, a three-time runner-up, thought he should have won in 2018 when the award went to Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays. Verlander is the oldest winner since Roger Clemens, who was 42 when he nabbed the trophy in 2004. Verlander allowed 36 home runs, nearly twice as many as last year.

In case you’re wondering, the first of the spring’s exhibition games will be played Feb. 21, by three MLB teams against college teams. Can you wait? Well, you don’t have a choice.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman