Jacob deGrom wins the NL Cy Young Award

While the end result seemed obvious, there was a small cause for concern. Just like he was on the mound, however, Jacob deGrom didn’t break a sweat. At 6:48 p.m. ET, number 48 added some hardware to his already impressive resume.

It was announced on MLB Network that Jacob DeGrom is the 2018 National League Cy Young winner. It was a unanimous victory for the 30-year old, who received 29 of 30 first-place votes. Overall, he received 207 votes, with one voter giving the Nationals’ Max Scherzer a first-place vote. A free agent after the 2020 season, deGrom proved his case to receive a sizable contract.

It was a truly dominant season for deGrom, who had a 1.70 ERA while only winning 10 games. According to MLB Network, deGrom is the first starting pitcher in MLB history to win the Cy Young with only 10 wins or less. He led the league in ERA, while also throwing over 250 strikeouts. The 2018 All-Star set single-season MLB records for quality starts (24) and starts with allowing three runs or fewer (29). He joins Tom Seaver (1969, ’73, ’75) Dwight Gooden (1985) and R.A. Dickey (2012) as the only Met to win the award.

In regards to pitching so well with a Mets team that wasn’t producing offensively, deGrom kept it simple.

“I tried to go out there every time and put the team in a position to win,” said deGrom. “Take the ball every fifth day and control what you can control.”

In his first few years in the majors, deGrom has truly made a name for himself. He joins some good company in starting his career off right.

Seven pitchers in MLB history have won both the Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young. Weirdly, the Mets have three of them.

Seaver: 1967 ROY, 1969/73/75 Cy
Gooden: 1984 ROY, 1985 Cy
And deGrom: 2014 ROY, 2018 Cy

(Verlander, Valenzuela, Sutcliffe and Newcombe are the others.)

— David Adler (@_dadler) November 14, 2018

While the record doesn’t quite show it, deGrom had one of the best seasons in MLB history. Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola, both placing second and third in the ballot, had historical seasons in their own right. Neither of these pitchers impressed the writers enough to give deGrom any competition.

On the American League side of things, Blake Snell won the Cy Young, beating Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber. Snell, who had a 21-5 record with a 1.89 ERA, received 17 of 30 first-place votes.