MLB Cy Young Awards: Yankees' Gerrit Cole is unanimous, Padres lefty Blake Snell wins second

Gerrit Cole finally entered the Cy Young Award winners’ circle Wednesday night, a moment that seemed inevitable after baseball’s best-paid pitcher produced a half-dozen top five finishes since 2015.

More unexpected: Blake Snell joining the fraternity of winners in both leagues after four challenging seasons since claiming his first trophy in 2018.

But the inevitable and the unlikely collided Wednesday, when Cole, the New York Yankees’ ace, was unanimously named the American League Cy Young Award winner, while Snell added the National League honor to the AL trophy he won in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America honored the highest-paid pitcher in the game – Cole’s $324 million, nine-year deal is a record for a pitcher – and a lefty who’s about to join him in the ranks of nine-figure contracts: Snell is eligible for free agency for the first time, his timing finally impeccable.

He's just the seventh pitcher in baseball history win a Cy Young Award in the NL and AL, the first since Max Scherzer with the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals.

NL Cy Young winner: Blake Snell, Padres

Snell, who turns 31 next month, was traded from Tampa Bay to the San Diego Padres two years after winning the 2018 award, and just weeks after his removal from Game 6 of the World Series while pitching a shutout.

The trade jolted Snell, who’d signed a $50 million extension to stay with the Rays, and his 2021 results reflected it: His ERA soared to 4.20 and his WHIP to 1.32, a career worst for any season with at least 25 starts.

But Snell steadied in 2022, when the Padres reached the NL Championship Series, shaving nearly a run off his ERA and Fielding Independent Pitching, which was an elite 2.80.

That set the stage for a most unlikely award-winning season.

Unlikely, in that Snell led the major leagues with 99 walks, his walk rate soaring to career-high 13.3%. Yet no pitcher suppressed solid contact better than Snell, who also led the majors in fewest hits per nine innings (5.8), ERA (2.25) and adjusted ERA (182).

It was echoes of his 2018 Cy Young season, when Snell led the majors with 21 wins and 5.6 hits per nine the AL with a 1.89 ERA.

Between trophies, there was still a learning curve.

"In 2018, I was a kid," says Snell, just 25 when he won in 2018. "I thought I was going to win 40 of ‘em. I thought I was invincible. I thought winning the Cy Young was something I’d do every year. That’s how you think when you’re young.

"Then, having the five years of battling to be the best version of myself and what that entails. And then this year: I’ve understood what it takes to win a Cy Young now."

Lurking in fifth place when Snell won in 2018? Gerrit Cole.

AL Cy Young winner: Gerrit Cole, Yankees

Cole would turn in one of the greatest seasons in recent history a year later, striking out a major league-high 326 batters for the Houston Astros and also leading all pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings (13.8) and adjusted ERA (185), while topping the AL with a 2.50 ERA.

But the 2019 AL Cy Young would go to his teammate: Justin Verlander beat him by just 12 points, with 17 first-place votes to Cole’s 13, even as Verlander had merely nominal advantages in innings pitched (223-212) and WHIP (0.80-0.90).

Cole would soon leave the Astros for the Yankees’ record offer and add another runner-up finish – behind Toronto’s Robbie Ray – in 2021.

Two years later, he would leave no doubt.

Cole led the majors with a 0.98 WHIP and his 2.63 ERA led the AL. His 222 strikeouts marked the fifth consecutive full season in which he struck out at least 200 – a dominant stretch finally rewarded with pitching’s greatest prize.

He's the sixth Yankee and the first since Roger Clemens in 2001 to win the Cy Young. Ron Guidry (1978) was the last Yankee to be chosen unanimously.

"I think it’s fitting: Ron has helped me out a lot, getting me acclimated to the pressures and the role," says Cole Wednesday night. "The style with which to pitch, which is to maximize my contributions to the team.

"He was a great Yankee, a captain, and he continues to represent the organization in that first-class way."

Cy Young voting results

Cole is the 11th pitcher to win the AL award unanimously, and the second consecutive following Verlander's honor in 2022. He was the only pitcher named on every ballot, although Minnesota right-hander Sonny Gray, who finished second, claimed 20 second-place votes and was named on 29 ballots.

Toronto's Kevin Gausman earned mention on 27 ballots and finished third, ahead of Baltimore right-hander Kyle Bradish.

Snell received 28 of 30 first-place votes, easily outpointing San Francisco's Logan Webb and Arizona's Zac Gallen, who each received one first-place nod. Webb, who finished the season 11-13, became the first starting pitcher with a losing record to finish first or second in Cy Young balloting.

Atlanta's Spencer Strider finished fourth, four points behind Gallen.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell win MLB 2023 Cy Young Awards: Voting results