Jacob deGrom, Mookie Betts in the mix for historic NL awards

New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom is going for his third consecutive NL Cy Young Award, and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts could become the second player to win the MVP award in each league.

The competition, of course, is tough.

DeGrom, Trevor Bauer and Yu Darvish are the top finishers for the NL Cy Young Award in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Betts, Freddie Freeman and Manny Machado are the finalists for NL MVP.

The top three finishers for each BBWAA award were revealed on Monday. The winners will be announced next week.

DeGrom could join Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux as the only pitchers to win at least three consecutive Cy Young Awards. But Bauer had an NL-best 1.73 ERA in 11 starts for Cincinnati, and Darvish went 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts for the Chicago Cubs, matching Cleveland Indians ace Shane Bieber for the major league lead in wins.

Betts, who won the 2018 AL MVP award with Boston, helped the Dodgers win the World Series for the first time since 1988. Frank Robinson is the only player to win the MVP award in each league, accomplishing the feat in 1961 with Cincinnati and 1966 for Baltimore.

Balloting for the BBWAA awards was completed before the start of the postseason.

Freeman batted .341 with 13 homers and 53 RBIs for the NL East champion Atlanta Braves, and Machado hit .304 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs for the San Diego Padres.

Bieber joined Minnesota Twins right-hander Kenta Maeda and Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu as finalists for the AL Cy Young Award. Bieber is the heavy favorite after the 25-year-old right-hander went 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings, leading the majors in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

“My confidence continues to grow just from coming into the season or...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Cleveland-ace-Bieber-among-finalists-for-AL-Cy-15695656.php