Gerrit Cole has won the American League Cy Young Award. The New York Yankees right-hander collected the first Cy Young of his already accomplished career on Wednesday night.
Cole beat out a group of finalists that included Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman and Minnesota Twins pitcher Sonny Gray.
The voting results were unanimously in favor of Cole. He took home all 30 first-place votes en route to winning the award.
New York boasted over their ace’s award victory with a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
While the Yankees are North America’s most successful sports franchise with 27 world championships, you might find it hard to believe that this Cole is just the sixth Cy Young Award winner in franchise history. He joins an elite group of pitchers that includes Bob Turley, Whitey Ford, Sparky Lyle, Ron Guidry, and Roger Clemens. Clemens is the last Yankee to win the award, having taken it home in 2001.
With six Cy Young Award wins, the Yankees franchise moves into a tie for third place all-time in Major League history. The Baltimore Orioles (1969, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980) and Cleveland Indians (1972, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2017, 2020) also each have six. The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers lead MLB all-time with 12 Cy Young Award winners.
New York is now one off of second place (7). Milwaukee/Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, and the New York Mets have all had seven Cy Young winners.
The BBWAA wrote that the unanimous victory for Cole was the 11th unanimous Cy Young Award win in the award’s illustrious history.
In 2023, Cole went 15-4 in 33 starts for the Yankees. He pitched a league-high 209 innings and led the league in ERA with 2.63. He posted 222 strikeouts to just 48 walks on the year. In every way, he delivered, and more than earned this Cy Young win.
[Yankees]
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Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022