In what was an expected outcome, Mets ace Jacob deGrom saw his quest for a third-straight Cy Young officially come to an end on Wednesday night, as free agent Trevor Bauer took home the award.
Bauer basically ran away with voting, taking home 27 of 30 first place votes, and 201 voting points overall. Yu Darvish finished runner-up with three first place votes and 123 voting points. DeGrom finished third in voting, recording three second place votes and 23 third place votes.
But these results don’t take anything away from the absolutely outstanding season turned in by the 32-year-old in 2020. In 12 starts, deGrom pitched to 2.38 ERA with a 2.26 FIP and 0.956 WHIP. All of those numbers were actually better than deGrom’s stats from 2019, when he took home his second Cy Young.
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And even beyond the stats, deGrom seemed to elevate his game to another level than previous seasons, routinely reaching 100 mph on his fastball. He struck out a whopping 104 batters (which led all NL pitchers) in 69.0 innings, while walking just 18.
But Bauer’s 2020 campaign proved too good to beat, as the 29-year old pitched to a 1.73 ERA in his 11 starts, striking out 100 (ranking second behind deGrom) with a 2.88 FIP and 0.795 WHIP.
Bauer, of course, is now set to cash in on his Cy Young win, as he hits the open market as the top free agent pitcher available.
Perhaps deGrom finishing behind Bauer in this year’s voting could be soothed a bit in the eyes of Mets fans if Bauer were to ultimately sign in Queens.
New team president Sandy Alderson said Tuesday that a personality like Bauer would be a great fit in New York.
"This is an entertainment business. … We’ve got to be open-minded about how players express themselves,” Alderson said. “The thing that’s interesting about Bauer is he brings along with him a lot of ideas, a lot of routines, a sort of technical orientation that I bet we can learn from. If a guy can perform. It doesn’t really-- to me as long as it’s not disruptive in the clubhouse and basically if guys see someone performing, they’ll live with whatever the baggage is.
“I actually think Bauer would be a great personality in New York. I think he’s the kind of guy that fans would embrace.”
So even though deGrom didn’t take the award home this year, Mets fans can still hope to have the winners of the three most recent Cy Young Awards on the roster in New York.