Astros: Justin Verlander edges Gerrit Cole for AL Cy Young Award

Justin Verlander takes home the AL Cy Young Award over Astros teammate Gerrit Cole.

In a highly anticipated announcement, it was Justin Verlander who won the 2019 AL Cy Young Award. He narrowly beat out his Astros teammate Gerrit Cole for the honor, as it had long been expected to be a close race between the two.

Verlander got 17 of the 30 first place votes, with Cole garnering the other 13. The second place votes were also split between the two, with Cole getting 17 and Verlander 13. In the end, it was undoubtedly a two-man race, as they were the only two players named on every ballot.

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For Verlander, it’s his second career Cy Young Award, with his first coming in 2011 when he won the AL MVP Award as well. He led the major leagues in wins (21), starts (34), innings pitched (223), WHIP (0.803) and hits per nine innings (5.5) en route to the 2019 trophy.

Notable Numbers

This season marked the first in the history of the AL Cy Young Award that a pair of teammates finished as the top two in the voting. This has happened four times in the National League, with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling being the most recent.

Verlander becomes the 21st pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards, joining a list of two-time winners that includes Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Tom Glavine and Roy Halladay. This is the fourth Cy Young Award won by an Astros pitcher, with Mike Scott, Roger Clemens and Dallas Keuchel being the others.

Interestingly, Verlander is now just the third pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards and the Rookie of the Year Award. The other two are Tom Seaver and this year’s NL Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom.

For Cole, he heads into free agency with two consecutive top-five finishes in the Cy Young voting. This marks his third top-five finish overall and his highest ever finish in the voting.

Former Astros pitcher Charlie Morton finished in third place, garnering 18 third-place votes. Shane Bieber and Lance Lynn rounded out the top five