deGrom (Kingsport 2010) wins NL Cy Young

The Mets' Jacob deGrom is the 2019 winner of the National League Cy Young Award, as announced on Wednesday night on MLB Network by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

For deGrom, this is another victory sans victories. While Verlander won 21 games in 2019 alone, that was deGrom's combined total for 2018 and '19. But deGrom's unmistakable excellence in the areas of the stat line over which he had more control earned him the honor of becoming just the 11th pitcher to win this award in back-to-back years.
"I said it was a dream to win one," deGrom said. "But to win back to back? Honestly, I'm kind of speechless right now."
deGrom did it with the exact same voting point total as 2018, once again appearing at the top of 29 of 30 ballots, with one second-place vote. The Dodgers' Hyun-Jin Ryu received the other first-place vote and finished in second place ahead of the Nationals' Max Scherzer. The Cy Young results were revealed on the penultimate night of the BBWAA announcements. Awards week wraps with Thursday's 6 p.m. ET unveiling of the AL and NL MVP honors on MLB Network.
deGrom: Not as smooth, but still sweet
The 31-year-old deGrom was not necessarily viewed as the runaway favorite in '19 that he was in '18, when he posted one of the lowest ERAs in modern history (1.70). But in a deep and complex field of NL candidates, he asserted himself and was the only pitcher named on every ballot.
• Over his final 23 starts, covering 152 innings, deGrom had a 1.89 ERA and .538 opponents' OPS.
• All told, he led the NL in strikeouts (255), ranked second in ERA (2.43), second in WHIP (0.97), third in innings (204) and third in ERA+ (167). He also led the National League in both the Baseball Reference (7.9) and Fangraphs (7.0) valuations of pitcher WAR.
• Among the five NL pitchers to reach the 200-inning threshold, deGrom's ERA was the best by 0.82 -- a wide margin.
• He became the only qualifying starter in the NL in 2018-19 with two straight seasons with a sub-1.00 WHIP.
About that won-loss record (11-8): It was once again no indication of how well deGrom pitched. deGrom had nine outings in which he went at least six innings, gave up no more than two earned runs and the Mets lost. It was the second straight year he led the Majors in that particular situation (it happened 11 times in 2018).
But 2019 differed from 2018 in a significant way, in that deGrom began the season by allowing 23 earned runs in his first 52 innings. He had to fight his way back to his standing atop the Senior Circuit pitching platform.
"This game will humble you quick," he said. "Last year, I didn't really seem to have any [difficulty]. It was smooth sailing all year. But this year, I was able to recover from that little rough patch and figure out a way to get it done and go out there and fix some mechanical things."
Now, deGrom finds himself on a list of back-to-back Cy Young winners that includes Sandy Koufax (1965-66), Denny McLain (1968-69), Jim Palmer (1975-76), Roger Clemens (1986-87 and 1997-98), Greg Maddux (1992-95), Pedro Martínez (1999-2000), Randy Johnson (1999-2002), Tim Lincecum (2008-09), Clayton Kershaw (2013-14) and Max Scherzer (2016-17).
National League results
1) Jacob deGrom , NYM: 29 (1st place), 1 (2nd place) -- 207 points
2) Hyun-Jin Ryu, LAD: 1 (1st), 10 (2nd), 8 (3rd), 7 (4th), 3 (5th) -- 88
3) Max Scherzer, WSH: 8 (2nd), 8 (3rd), 6 (4th), 4 (5th) -- 72
4) Jack Flaherty , STL: 5 (2nd), 11 (3rd), 6 (4th), 4 (5th) -- 69
5) Stephen Strasburg , WSH: 6 (2nd), 1 (3rd), 9 (4th), 8 (5th) -- 53
6) Mike Soroka , ATL: 1 (3rd), 6 (5th) -- 9
7) Sonny Gray , CIN: 4 (5th) -- 4
8) Clayton Kershaw, LAD: 1 (3rd) -- 3
T-9) Walker Buehler , LAD: 1 (4th) -- 2
T-9) Kirby Yates , SD -- 1 (4th) -- 2
11) Patrick Corbin , WSH -- 1 (5th) -- 1