CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) - The American League Cy Young Award is coming back to Cleveland.
Shane Bieber was named the 2020 A.L. Cy Young Award winner Wednesday night, besting Minnesota’s Kenta Maeda and Toronto’s Hyun-Jin Ryu in a vote that made Bieber the 10th unanimous winner in A.L. history, and the first A.L. pitcher to do so since Justin Verlander in 2011.
Bieber took the baseball world by storm in its abbreviated season with a record of 8-1, which tied him with the Cubs’ Yu Darvish for most wins in the majors. Also best in the majors were Bieber's 1.65 earned run average and 122 strikeouts, making him the first Triple Crown pitcher since Johan Santana in 2006 – as well as the first Indians pitcher to accomplish such a feat (Bob Feller won the A.L. Triple Crown in 1940, but did not lead the majors in all three categories).
The 25-year-old right-hander who was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 amateur draft now becomes the fifth Cleveland pitcher to win the Cy Young. He's also the fourth Tribe pitcher to win the prize since 2007, following CC Sabathia (’07), Cliff Lee (’08), and Corey Kluber (’14, & ’17). Gaylord Perry was the first Indians pitcher to win, in 1972.
"Today's a good day regardless, and I guess it just makes it that much better that we were able to take this thing home, and that it was unanimous," said Bieber in a virtual conference following the announcement.
Bieber earned the award a year after finishing fourth in the vote, which went to Verlander, although Bieber did win that year’s All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award for his striking out the side during the midsummer classic at Progressive Field. In that 2019 season, Bieber posted a 15-8 record with 259 K’s in 214.1 innings pitched.
Since being called up to the majors in early 2018, Bieber has racked up 34 wins and 14 losses, and his career ERA is 3.32. He’ll likely hit the 500-strikeout mark in 2021, as he sits at 499.
As for the other finalists, both Maeda and Ryu shined in their inaugural American League campaigns. Both had been teammates with the Dodgers in 2019, but Maeda was dealt to Minnesota as part of the Mookie Betts blockbuster trade, while Ryu signed with Toronto as a free agent.
Maeda finished second in the vote by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He went 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a league-best .202 on-base percentage (Bieber finished second in the category at .229), while Ryu finished third after going 5-2 with a 2.69 ERA.
The final vote count came to the maximum 30 first-place votes for Bieber and 18 for Maeda, with Dallas Keuchel (5), Ryu (4), Gerrit Cole (2) and Lance Lynn (1) rounding out the first-place votes.