Blake Snell joins elite company with second-career Cy Young Award

There are now 22 players in Major League Baseball history who have won multiple Cy Young Awards.

Blake Snell was named the 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner Wednesday night after a superb season with the San Diego Padres.

The left-hander joins elite company. Eleven pitchers who have won the award multiple times have a plaque in Cooperstown, while Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw will eventually likely join them.

Roger Clemens also has Hall of Fame numbers, and his seven awards are an all-time record, but his link to performance-enhancing drugs has blocked his entry to the Hall. 

Snell is also just the seventh ever to win the award in both leagues. He won in 2018 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Snell’s 2.25 ERA was by far the lowest in all of baseball. He did allow an MLB-high 99 walks, but his ability to keep runners from scoring minimized the damage.

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On May 19, he allowed six earned runs in four innings, raising his ERA to 5.40. But in his final 23 outings, he allowed just 18 earned in 135 innings, good for a 1.20 ERA over that span. His 234 strikeouts were a career high and tied for the third-highest in baseball (second in NL). And his 11.7 K/9 was the second-highest in baseball behind Atlanta’s Spencer Strider.

Snell is the fifth Padre to win the award, joining Randy Jones, Gaylord Perry, Mark Davis and Jake Peavy.

Snell is now a free agent for the first time in his career.