MLB revealed the 2021 Cy Young award winners on Wednesday. Below are point totals for the 2021 Cy Young Award balloting, as voted on by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Ballots for each award were submitted before the start of the postseason from two writers in every city, based on the league covered. The system rewards seven points for first place, four points for second place, three points for third place, two votes for fourth place and one point for fifth place.
The 30-year-old Ray was a near-unanimous selection on the AL ballot (just one BBWAA voter gave a first-place vote to the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, who finished second ahead of the White Sox’s Lance Lynn),where as the 27-year-old Burnes’ win was razor thin.
NL voters were evenly split when choosing between Burnes’ resounding rate stats in 167 innings (the smallest innings total for a Cy Young-winning starter in a non-shortened season) and the workhorse success of the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, who threw an MLB-high 213 1/3 innings.
Burnes and Wheeler each received 12 first-place votes. But Burnes had 14 second-place votes to Wheeler’s nine to finish 10 points ahead of him (151-141), with the Nationals/Dodgers’ Max Scherzer finishing third with six first-place votes and 113 voting points.
The 10-point margin of victory for Burnes over Wheeler was the closest in the NL and tied for the fourth-closest overall since the ballot expanded from three to five pitchers in 2010. It was just the second time ever that the first-place and second-place finisher had the same number of first-place votes (winner Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers and second-place finisher Tom Seaver of the Reds each received eight in 1981).
AMERICAN LEAGUE RESULTS
Robbie Ray, TOR: 29 (first-place votes), 1 (second) — 207 points
Gerrit Cole, NYY: 1 (first), 29 (second) — 123 points
Lance Lynn, CWS: 11 (third), 5 (fourth), 5 (fifth) — 48 points
Nathan Eovaldi, BOS: 8 (third), 6 (fourth), 5 (fifth) — 41 points
Carlos Rodón, CWS: 4 (third), 8 (fourth), 6 (fifth) — 34 points
Frankie Montas, OAK: 2 (third), 6 (fourth), 3 (fifth) — 21 points
Lance McCullers Jr. , HOU: 1 (third), 4 (fourth), 3 (fifth) — 14 points
Liam Hendriks, CWS: 3 (third), 1 (fifth) — 10 points
José Berríos, MIN/TOR: 1 (third), 1 (fourth), 3 (fifth) — 8 points
Chris Bassitt, OAK: 2 (fifth) — 2 points
Lucas Giolito, CWS: 1 (fifth) — 1 point
Raisel Iglesias, LAA: 1 (fifth) — 1 point
NATIONAL LEAGUE RESULTS
Corbin Burnes, MIL: 12 (first-place votes), 14 (second), 3 (third), 1 (fourth) — 151 points
Zack Wheeler, PHI: 12 (first), 9 (second), 4 (third), 4 (fourth), 1 (fifth) — 141 points
Max Scherzer, WSH/LAD: 6 (first), 5 (second), 13 (third), 6 (fourth) — 113 points
Walker Buehler, LAD: 2 (second), 9 (third), 17 (fourth), 1 (fifth) — 70 points
Brandon Woodruff, MIL: 2 (fourth), 17 (fifth) — 21 points
Kevin Gausman, SF: 1 (third), 4 (fifth) — 7 points
Adam Wainwright, STL: 3 (fifth) — 3 points
Julio Urías, LAD: 3 (fifth) — 3 points
Jacob deGrom, NYM: 1 (fifth) — 1 point
