Cy Young Award Winners 2023

Cy Young Award Winners Gerrit Cole & Brett Snell 

By David A. Avila

They were magnificent on disappointing teams.

Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees and Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres were voted the Cy Young Award in their respective leagues.

Snell, the hard-throwing lefthander who blazed past the opposition with fastballs and curves became a Cy Young winner for the second time. But this time on the National League as he started 32 games for the Padres who were a favorite to win the NL West.

Sadly, the Padres underperformed but not Snell.

Over the course of the season Snell dominated opposition after a slow start. But when he finally got the engine revving perfectly, all anyone could do was admire his work as he left batters limp and helpless.

In 180 innings pitched he struck out 234 batters in winning 14 games with a 2.25 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. Though he walked many batters he figured out that walking batters was just something that comes with his pitching style.

“I was more worried on what other people were saying,” said Snell about his poor early start this past season before accepting walks. “I believed I was different. That one guy walked is not going to end my start.”

Snell is the seventh to win a Cy Young in both the AL and NL. In 2018 he won the award while pitching for Tampa Bay Rays. The last to accomplish it was Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez.

“Being able to win another one is a pretty amazing thing,” said Snell.

In the American League, powerful New York Yankee righthand pitcher Gerrit Cole was voted the award unanimously.

“It makes me very proud. We have now six Cys in the organization. A lot of great pitchers over the years,” said Yankee pitcher Cole. “You take a lot of pride repping the organization.”

Cole was the constant that the New York team needed to offset injuries to most of their staff. The Yankee starter dominated the opposition as he won 15 games in 33 starts while striking out 222 batters in 209 innings pitched. His ERA was 2.63 and WHIP an astounding .0981.

Though Cole’s Yankees failed to make the playoffs despite a powerful lineup, he was the tent pole that kept the entire team from completely crumbling.

All who faced the Yankees were aware of his capacity to shut them out or nullify their bats.

“We all dream about that (being the best in the game) give my team a chance to win every day,” Cole said. “We’re still dreaming about winning that World Series.”   

Cole did his part for the Yankees and the rest of the American League noticed.