The Cincinnati Reds’ Trevor Bauer won the National League Cy Young Award, giving Cincinnati its first winner of the honor.
Bauer topped fellow finalists Yu Darvish of the Chicago Cubs and Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets in the voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Wednesday.
DeGrom was looking to become the third pitcher in MLB history to win the award in three consecutive seasons.
The Reds had never had a Cy Young winner, making them one of four active MLB teams without a Cy Young winner and the only team founded prior to 1961 without one.
Bauer ended that drought.
He went 5-4 with an NL-best 1.73 ERA in 11 starts, helping the Reds reach 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 pair of seven-inning performances on doubleheader days.
He became a free agent after the season and turned down the Reds’ qualifying offer, but 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.”
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