Cubs’ Jake Arrieta: Wins NL Cy Young Award

The Players Choice Award victor as the NL’s Most Outstanding Pitcher in 2015, Greinke can now also boast of having had the best season that didn’t result in a Cy Young Award as well.

After having one of the best second halves of any pitcher in recent memory, Cubs ace Jake Arrieta was voted National League Cy Young award victor on Wednesday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “Grinding through (Triple)A and second-guessing myself”. He finished with 17 of 30 first-place votes and 169 overall points in what was a close race with Dodgers teammates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw.

Keuchel received 92 first-place votes (51.40%) and 956 points while being named on 175 of 179 ballots (97.22%).

Kershaw came in third this season, with three first-place votes.

Arrieta, 29, led the majors in wins with 22 and tied with Kershaw and Washington’s Max Scherzer for the most shutouts, with three.

Arrieta’s incredible run helped propel the Cubs to a 98-win season in perhaps the toughest five-team division in the history of the format. He went 12-2 a 0.75 ERA after the break.

From June 18 to July 26, Greinke had a streak of 45⅔ consecutive scoreless innings, the longest scoreless streak since Orel Hershiser’s record-setting 59-innin mark in 1988. Kershaw finished right behind in third place with 31 place votes while Arrieta finished with 79 votes as the voters were split on who they felt deserved the NL Cy Young.

Greinke, 32, had a record of 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA, the lowest earned-run average of any major league starting pitcher since Greg Maddux posted a 1.63 ERA in 1995.

Greinke opted out of the final three years of his contract to take free agency. In 1956, the first year of the award, Don Newcombe and Sal Maglie finished 1-2.