Cubs ace Jake Arrieta wins NL Cy Young Award

It was Greinke who was named the National League’s Most Outstanding Pitcher in the Players Choice Awards voting, but the writers had a different view and were ultimately more impressed with what Arrieta brought to the table statistically.

Price drew eight first-place votes and 143 points. Great cases could be made for all three finalists – Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arrieta.

Dallas Keuchel of the Astros had a breakout year in 2015 and helped lead his team to the A.L. Wild Card, and wins the A.L. Cy Young.

Both Arrieta and Keuchel are signed long term and are expected to be their teams’ aces for years to come. 132 opponents’ batting average over his final nine regular-season starts – a stretch that included an August 30 no-hitter against the Dodgers – was the lowest by any pitcher over a nine-start span in the modern era (post 1920).

In the American League, Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel garnered 22 first-place votes to run away with the AL Cy Young award. Steve Bedrosian beat Rick Sutcliffe by two points for the 1987 Cy Young Award.

Greinke went 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA and 200 strikeouts. Kershaw got the other three firsts and 101 points.

Arrieta had incredible dominance, but not for an entire season. He picked up 22 first-place votes and 186 points.

Sales was part of the conversation during the first half of 2015, when he posted an 8-4 record with a 2.72 ERA.

Kershaw had won three of the previous four NL Cy Young awards. You’d have to go back to 1919 and Pete Alexander who finished that season with a 1.72 ERA.

But in the context of a NL Cy Young race, one bad month should have been enough to keep Arrieta from winning the award, especially with the history-making season that Greinke put together. Chicago became the first team since the 2001 Seattle Mariners and the first NL team since the 1991 Atlanta Braves to win three awards in the same season.

A’s starter Sonny Gray finished third with 82 total points, followed by Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale (30 points) and the Tampa Bay Rays’ Chris Archer (29 points). But Gray took a step forward with his second consecutive 14-win season and lowered his ERA from 3.08 to 2.73 this season. He edged out Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander to win the award in 2012 while pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays.