In the least-surprising result of this award season, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has been named the 2014 Cy Young Award winner in the National League by the Baseball Writers Association of America. It was a unanimous vote -- the first since Tigers righty Justin Verlander won unanimously in 2011.
Kershaw had a dominant 2014 regular season, posting a ridiculous 1.77 ERA, 0.857 WHIP, and 239/31 K/BB ratio across 198 1/3 innings for the National League West-champion Dodgers. He then got bombarded by the Cardinals in the NLDS, coughing up a combined 11 earned runs in his two starts, but that’s obviously not the main focus here.
Kershaw is one of nine pitchers in major league history to win three Cy Young Awards (he also won in 2011 and 2013) and he’s just the sixth pitcher in MLB history to win three Cy Young Awards in a four-year span, joining Jim Palmer, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and fellow Dodgers great Sandy Koufax.
Kershaw doesn’t turn 27 years old until next March. He is signed with Los Angeles through 2020.
Johnny Cueto finished second in this year’s balloting and Adam Wainwright finished third.
