CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) - The American League Cy Young Award is coming to 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 first unanimous winner of the award since Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
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 becomes the fifth Cleveland pitcher to win the Cy Young and the fourth 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.
Bieber took the top pitching prize a year after finishing fourth in the vote, which went to Houston’s Justin 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 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 was 5-2 with a 2.69 ERA.