2025 MLB Cy Young Award Winners

Major League Baseball has announced its 2025 Cy Young Award winners, and again there are no surprises. Tarik Skubal beat out Garret Crochet in the American League (and did so slightly more handily than I was expecting) for his second consecutive Cy Young award, and Paul Skenes was a unanimous selection in the National League (with Christopher Sánchez receiving all 2nd-place votes and Yoshinobu Yamamoto finishing in 3rd).

You can see the full voting results on this page.

Clayton Kershaw Records 3000th Career Strikeout!

In today's Dodger game, Clayton Kershaw became the 20th pitcher with at least 3000 career strikeouts. He is the fourth left-handed starter in that club and is the fifth pitcher to record at least 3000 strikeouts for one franchise.

Here is the rank-ordered list of Major League Baseball's sll-time strikeout leaders.

Bradford Doolittle did an interesting exercise to rank the 20 pitchers with at least 3000 strikeouts. (He puts Kershaw at 11th.)

Update (7/03/25): Jay Jaffe has written a nice article about Kershaw's accomplishment and its context.

2024 Cy Young Awards

Baseball's 2024 Cy Young awards were announced today. Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves won in the National League, and Tarik Skubal was a unanimous winner in the American League.

2024 Baseball Rookies of the Year

The 2024 Rookies of the Year were announced today. Paul Skenes of the Pirates was the winner of an exceptionally strong rookie class (beating out the two Jacksons) in the National League, and Luis Gil of the Yankees was the winner (barely winning over Colton Cowser of the Orioles) of a much weaker rookie class in the American League.

Dodgers Sign Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto!

The Dodgers have signed star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is joining the Majors from Japan. Now we have our ace starting pitcher!

This follows on our recent trade for pitcher Tyler Glasnow and our signing of free agent Shohei Ohtani.

What the Dodgers do is Moneyball with money.

2023 Relievers of the Year

Félix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles and Devin Williams of the Milwaukee Brewers are this year's Relievers of the Year in Baseball.

2023 Cy Young Awards

As with Major League Baseball's awards earlier this week, the 2023 Cy Young Awards were awarded to the expected pitchers. Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres won handily in the National League, and Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees won unanimously in the American League.

Fernando Valenzuela's Number is Finally Getting Retired Tonight!

Tonight the Los Angeles Dodgers are finally retiring Fernando Valenzuela's number 34. This is long overdue. Fernando is a Los Angeles icon.

No Dodger has worn Fernando's number since he left the team, and now no other Dodger will ever wear it again.

Update: Here is ESPN.com's article about the jersey retirement ceremony.

The Dodgers are Finally Retiring Fernando Valenzuela's Uniform Number!

It took way too long, but the Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that they are finally retiring Fernando Valenzuela's uniform number. Given what Fernandro means to this franchise and this city, the team should have retired his number a very long time ago.

2022 Cy Young Awards: Both Unanimous!

The 2022 Cy Youngs were announced today, and both of them are unanimous (i.e., received all 1st-place votes). Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros won the American League Cy Young Award, and Sandy Alcántara of the Miami Marlins won the National League Cy Young Award.

I expected Justin Verlander to win, but not to be unanimous. I would have been very surprised if Sandy Alcántara were not unanimous. No other pitchers were anywhere close to Alcántara this year. Only once before have both leagues had unanimous Cy Young Award winners in the same year. That was in 1968, when Denny Mclain won in the AL and Bob Gibson won in the NL.

2021 Cy Young Awards

Major League Baseball has announced its 2021 Cy Young Awards for pitching excellence. Robbie Ray of the Toronto Blue Jays won the award in the American League, and Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers won in the National League.

The National League race was very close; Burnes narrowly beat out Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Scherzer wasn't horribly far away either. Walker Buehler of the Dodgers finished 4th in the balloting.

Major League Relievers of the Year

The Mariano Rivera Award and Trevor Hoffmann Award have been awarded to the top relievers in the American League and National League, respectively. Liam Hendricks of the Chicago White Sox won the former, and Josh Hader of the Milwakuee Brewers won the latter.

Dodgers Sign Trevor Bauer!

The Dodgers have signed free-agent pitcher Trevor Bauer!

RIP Don Sutton (1945–2021)

We have lost yet another Hall-of-Fame Dodger: pitcher Don Sutton has died.

(Tip of the cap to Gregg Schneider.)

RIP Phil Niekro (1939–2020)

The great knuckleballer and Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro died in his sleep last night.

Yet another great baseball player has left us this year.

2020 Cy Young Awards

Baseball's 2020 Cy Young Awards have now been announced. Unsurprisingly, Shane Bieber of the Cleveland Indians was the unanimous winner in the American League. Free agent Trevor Bauer (who spent 2020 with the Cincinnati Reds) won the National League Cy Young Award over Yu Darvish (of the Cubs) and Jacob deGrom (of the Mets).

RIP Bob Gibson (1935–2020)

Baseball has lost yet another immortal. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson died today at the age of 84. (Tip of the cap to Gregg Schneider.)

Dodgers Advance to the Division Series!

Clayton Kershaw had his most dominant performance of 2020, advancing the Dodgers over the Brewers in their "Wild Card Series". This advances us to a Division Series against the winner of the Cardinals–Padres series. The Padres are a more dangerous team, but they're also a more interesting one, so I hope that we play them.

RIP Tom Seaver (1944–2020)

Baseball Hall-of-Famer and pitching legend Tom Seaver has died. You can marvel at his career statistics on this page.

(Tip of the cap to Gregg Schneider.)

2019 Cy Young Awards

The 2019 Cy Young Awards, for the best pitching performances in the American and National League, were announced today by Major League Baseball. In the American League, Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros edged out teammate Gerrit Cole. (It would have been really cool if they had tied, but I agree that Verlander is a slightly better choice as the winner.) In the National League, Jacob DeGrom won in a landslide over Hyun-Jin Ryu and Max Scherzer (who were tied for 2nd place), who were barely ahead of Jack Flaherty. Stephen Strasburg finished in 5th place, and he was within striking distance of Flaherty.

You can read ESPN's summary of this week's Major Baseball Awards on this page.