At the end of every season, the Cy Young Award, created by Commissioner Ford Frick,  is given to a single, phenomenal pitcher in each major league chosen by the Baseball Writers Association of America. . Fans were chatting nervously and predicting who would be the pitchers to be honored with the award this year, and the news finally went out on Wednesday, December 2nd. Jake Arrieta and Dallas Keuchel were the recipients of the award; Arrieta received the National Cy Young Award and Keuchel earned the American Cy Young Award.

     Jake Arrieta was the first Chicago Cubs Cy Young Award winner since 1992, when Greg Maddux had the honors, according to the MLB website. His competition included Zack Greinke, a right-hander from the Dodgers, and Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers left-hander who won the award for three of the past four seasons. He earned a total of seventeen first place votes. Keuchel beat out Toronto Blue Jays’ David Price and Oakland A’s Sonny Gray, earning twenty-two first place votes.

Taiga Sato, a junior at Wilcox High School and varsity baseball player, commented on Arrieta and Keuchel, saying that “this year they both came out strong, not only in stats but also their popularity from the fans. I personally think it was somewhat expected, although Greinke from the Dodgers and Degrom from the Mets both had a good chance.” “I can say they certainly led the team with their pitching enabling their teams to be part of the post-season.” When prompted why he thought set these certain pitchers apart, he commented that it may have been “because at the beginning of the season, not many expected them to be the leading pitchers in MLB but they rose to where they are now.”

     According to the New York Times, Keuchel didn’t lose any home games and had a 2.48 E.R.A., a 1.02 WHIP, and 216 strikeouts in 232 innings –a record-breaker for AL. Arrieta had a 1.77 E.R.A. and 5.9 hits and 0.4 home runs per nine innings.

The MVP award was handed to Josh Donaldson, third baseman of the Toronto Blue Jays, for AL and Bryce Harper, outfielder of the Washington Nationals, for NL. Rookie of the Year went to Astros shortstop Carlos Correa and Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant.

     In an interview hosted by MLB, Arrieta thanked everyone involved, “all the guys I’ve continued to compete against year in and year out to try to take my game to the next level. … All the hard work’s been worth it.”

Keuchel attributed his success to enormous amounts of work and his teachers, saying “I’ve had to scratch and claw to make a lot of adjustments and be comfortable in my own body. There’s numerous guys I’ve taken bits and pieces from and tried to learn from, so by no means is that all me.”