Will Jacob deGrom's Incredible Season Be Enough To Be Named NL MVP And Cy Young Award Winner?

One of the great debates in Major League Baseball is when a pitcher delivers an exceptional season, do they deserve to win the Most Valuable Player award in addition to the Cy Young Award? It is one of the rarer accomplishments in baseball and only the most historic seasons are even given consideration.

Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets is having one of those seasons right now.

Through 11 starts, his ERA is 0.54, an incomprehensible number for a starting pitcher. Since 1950, the lowest ERA posted by a qualified starting pitcher over the course of a season was 1.12 by Bob Gibson in 1968.

DeGrom is having an all-time great season, but is it enough to win the MVP award? He is currently the favorite at +185 according to Draftkings Inc. DKNG, but it is rare for pitchers to win baseball’s highest honor.

Since the Cy Young Award was introduced in 1956, only 11 pitchers have won the MVP award. For context, 130 MVP awards have been given out since then, meaning a pitcher has won less than 10% of the time.

Before the Cy Young Award, 14 pitchers won MVP, so it was still a rare accomplishment.

DeGrom’s numbers are eye-popping. Since opening the season at +4000 to win the MVP, deGrom has taken the league by storm. He has driven in more runs — six — as a hitter than allowed on the mound, which is four.

His 14.9 strikeouts per nine innings are by far the most in the league. When he won the Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019, he posted ERA’s of 1.70 and 2.43.

He had the best ERA in the major leagues in 2018 and finished 5th in MVP voting.

In the past 20 years, only Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander have won the MVP as pitchers. Both had incredible seasons, but also played key roles on contending teams.

For a pitcher to win the award, they need to be on winning squads. Fortunately for deGrom, the Mets are in first place in the NL East and are on track to easily reach the playoffs.

He is also the heavy favorite to win the Cy Young award at -305. In the MVP race, Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres has the second-best odds at +250 while Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves is the only other player better than +2500 at +450. Both players are having excellent seasons, but nothing near as historic as deGrom.

A stint on the injured list has prevented deGrom from reaching qualified status so far, meaning he is not atop many statistical leaderboards. He will soon reach the minimum number of innings pitched and will take command of the ERA category, among many others.

Should deGrom win the MVP award in the National League, he would become just the 25th pitcher to do so and the 12th in the Cy Young era.

Below are the other 11 winners and some key stats to compare to deGrom’s:

Clayton Kershaw, 2014
1.77 ERA, 21-3 record

Justin Verlander, 2011
2.40 ERA, 24-5 record

Dennis Eckersley, 1992
1.91 ERA, 51 saves

Roger Clemens, 1986
2.48 ERA, 24-4 record

Willie Hernandez, 1984
1.92 ERA, 32 saves, 80 games pitched

Rollie Fingers, 1981
1.04 ERA, 32 saves

Vida Blue, 1971
1.82 ERA, 24-8 record, 312 innings pitched

Denny McLain, 1968
1.96 ERA, 31-6 record

Bob Gibson, 1968
1.12 ERA, 22-9 record

Sandy Koufax, 1963
1.88 ERA, 25-5 record

Don Newcombe, 1956
3.06 ERA, 27-7 record, 18 complete games

Photo: slgckgc, Flickr