Blake Snell Wins Cy Young

The writing was on the wall back in 2015. That year Blake Snell joined the Bulls in late-July to make his Triple-A debut, after a sterling start to the season in Advanced-A and Double-A. The southpaw finished the year going 15–4 with a 1.41 ERA across three levels, capping a historic campaign.

Flash forward to Nov. 14, 2018, where the same southpaw was named the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner after going 21–5 with a 1.89 ERA, leading the league in wins, ERA, opponent’s batting average (.178) and pitcher’s WAR (7.4). Additionally, he’s only the third AL pitcher in the DH era (since 1973) to have a 20-win, sub-2.00 ERA campaign, and is the third-best ERA in the AL in the DH era.

Snell edged out Houston ace Justin Verlander, earning 169 points to Verlander’s 154, and picking up 17 of the 30 first-place votes.

Overall Snell appeared in parts of three seasons for Durham, going 14–7 with a 2.68 ERA over 28 starts. He joins David Price (2012) as the only former Bulls to win the Cy Young award.

Perhaps the craziest thing? Snell is just 25 years old, so his best is still ahead of him.

Congrats, Blake.