The Cincinnati Reds’ Trevor Bauer won the National League Cy Young Award, giving Cincinnati its first champ of the honor.
Bauer beat individual finalists Yu Darvish of the Chicago Cubs and Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets in the voting reported by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Wednesday.
DeGrom was hoping to become the third pitcher in MLB history to win the award in three continuous seasons.
The Reds had never had a Cy Young champ, making them one of four active MLB teams without a Cy Young victor and the only team established before 1961 without one.
Bauer finished that dry season.
He went 5-4 with a NL-best 1.73 ERA in 11 beginnings, helping the Reds arrive at the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Animated on the field and outspoken off it, the 29-year-old right-hander struck out 100 in 73 innings and led the majors with two shutouts, a couple of seven-inning exhibitions on doubleheader days.
He became a free operator after the season and turned down the Reds’ qualifying offer, yet left the door open for a return.
“I haven’t thought about free agency very much yet, to be honest,” said Bauer, known for some unusual and progressive training methods that have helped turn him into one of baseball’s best pitchers. “I have had a lot of stuff that I’ve been doing trying to get my offseason underway, trying to get better at baseball.”
This is the first Cy Young for Bauer, who tied for 6th in the AL voting in 2018, after he went 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA for the Indians. He was traded to Cincinnati finally year’s deadline as a feature of a three-team deal that moved Yasiel Puig to Cleveland.
Bauer battled after he was obtained by the Reds, going 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA in 10 beginnings. He got back to frame when this season began in July. He surrendered just two runs and eight hits in 26⅓ innings over his initial four beginnings. He additionally finished off the season with a twist, recording a 1.29 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 35 innings more than five September begins.
“The biggest deal this year is I was just healthy,” he said. “I was able to go out there and compete, be on a routine.”
Bauer pitched Game 1 of the playoffs at Atlanta and struck out 12 in 7⅔ innings. However, the Reds lost 1-0 of every 13 innings and neglected to score during the Braves’ breadth.
Bauer, who has his own YouTube account and almost 400,000 devotees on Twitter, was chosen by Arizona with the No. 3 by and large pick in the 2011 draft. He is 75-64 with a 3.90 ERA in 205 profession games, including 195 beginnings.
