The Braves’ young flamethrower just missed being a finalist for the prestigious award.
Blake Snell has won the NL Cy Young award, receiving 28 of the 30 available first place votes with his 2.25 ERA over 180.0 IP. Snell winning with that kind of margin is pretty questionable with his 3.77 FIP and 4.95 BB/9, but awards voters tend to skew much more towards old-school stats (ERA, wins, innings pitched, etc.) and awards voting has been a mess for a while now. Spencer Strider finished fourth, but with a strange distribution of votes, being left off of 7 ballots. This is Strider’s first time receiving Cy Young votes and he was nearly a finalist for the award. He has the looks of a guy who could win the award in not too long if he stays healthy and gets a bit more luck to go his way. Logan Webb and Zac Gallen finished second and third, respectively. Justin Steele, Zach Wheeler, Kodai Senga, and Corbin Burnes were the others receiving votes.
The voting breakdown for the NL Cy Young Award pic.twitter.com/Ut7zX5wIIE
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) November 15, 2023
On the AL side, Gerrit Cole won the Cy Young unanimously, while Braves-linked Sonny Gray finished a strong second. Braves’ Legends Kevin Gausman and Chris Martin (because of reasons) finished third and twelfth respectively, while Kyle Bradish, Luis Castillo, Zach Eflin, Pablo Lopez, George Kirby, Framber Valdez, Chris Bassitt, and Felix Bautista also received votes.
Cy Young voting is often an adventure of inconsistency and old-school perspectives and this year fits that bill.