Morning Rundown: Blake Snell, Gerrit Cole win Cy Young, Cal Mitchell signs with new team
Blake Snell makes history, Cole wins first Cy Young, Cal Mitchell finds a new team
Major League Baseball announced the winners of the AL and NL Cy Young awards on Wednesday, with Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell taking home the honors.
For Snell, he joins a rare, special group of pitchers, becoming one of seven to win the Cy Young in both leagues, previously taking home the award while with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Snell, 30, also a free agent, posted a 14-9 record with a 2.25 ERA while striking out 31.5% of the batters he faced across his 180 innings of work. He picked up 28 of the 30 first-place votes.
When it comes to Cole, he won the award unanimously after going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA and putting together a WAR of 5.2. Cole had finished second in Cy Young voting twice before, finally walking away with the award.
The MVP will be announced Thursday, wrapping up the end-of-season awards they’ve stretched out over this week.
Former second-round pick in 2017, Cal Mitchell, signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.
Mitchell worked his way up the ladder in the Pirates system, seemingly improving the higher he went. He made his major league debut in 2022, struggled, and didn’t get much of an opportunity this past season.
While playing for Triple-A Indianapolis in 2023, Mitchell hit .261/.333/.414 with nine home runs and 55 RBI.
The Pirates had a decent-sized number of minor leaguers to hit free agency this offseason, with Mitchell looking like he was the first to sign with a new team.
All the best to Cal, always thought he looked like a baseball player and his swing is up there on the pretty scale, though I guess lower on the effectiveness scale
Glad to see Cal Mitchell end up going home to San Diego.
Away for a few weeks in Hawaii, but no real surprises on the 40. I do wonder what the reasoning is for keeping Josh Palacios and Alika Williams, but I would expect that neither end 2023 with the Pirates. There are other issues that need to be resolved, but hopefully we will see some changes at the GM meetings in December.