***UPDATE: The Baseball Writers Association of America’s vote total, as announced, did not match the individual ballots. The totals assigned Stephen Strasburg 10 second-place votes and Hyun-Jin Ryu six, when the numbers from the ballots were the opposite. Those totals initially gave Max Scherzer a tie for second and Strasburg a tie for fourth in the voting. WTOP reached out to the BBWAA to clear up the discrepancy, and they have issued a correction with the proper results.***
Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer finished third in the National League Cy Young Award race, which was won by New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom for the second straight year.
Scherzer had a dominant first half of the 2019 season, but minor injuries limited him to 172.1 innings pitched, his lowest in 10 years. He led the league in fielding independent pitching, strikeout rate, and strikeout-to-walk rate, but trailed deGrom in wins above replacement, earned run average and strikeouts.
Scherzer also finished behind Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, who won the ERA title.
Scherzer, 35, has now finished in the top five of his respective league’s Cy Young vote in seven consecutive seasons, dating back through 2013. He had finished first or second in the NL Cy Young each of the last three years before Wednesday night’s third-place finish.
Stephen Strasburg finished fifth in the voting, with St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty finishing fourth.
