The Los Angeles Dodgers had three pitchers place within the top 10 of 2021 National League Cy Young Award voting as Walker Buehler and Julio Urias joined finalist Max Scherzer on the final ballot.
Buehler placed fourth in the voting, receiving 70 total points with two second-place votes, nine third-place votes, 17 fourth-place votes and one fifth-place vote. Urias was tied for seventh in voting with longtime St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright with three fifth-place votes each.
Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers won the award with 151 total points, beating Philadelphia Phillies starter Zack Wheeler by 10 points. Burnes received 12 first-place votes, 14-second place votes, three third-place votes and one fourth-place vote.
Wheeler also received 12 first-place votes, but garnered fewer down-the-ballot votes than Burnes.
Scherzer, who finished third in voting, was the only other pitcher to receive first-place votes, and he earned six of them, finishing with 113 total points.
Were Buehler and Urias snubbed for Cy Young?
Burnes was the favorite to win the award as he posted an MLB-leading 2.43 ERA and 1.63 FIP in 167 innings while accumulating 7.5 WAR and striking out 12.61 hitters per nine with just 1.83 walks per nine.
However, Buehler finished second in the NL in innings pitched with 207.2 while posting a 2.47 ERA, which is just 0.04 behind Burnes and 0.01 behind Scherzer. That came in around 41 more innings than Burnes and almost 30 more than Scherzer.
The only pitcher with more innings, Wheeler, finished with an ERA 0.31 worse than Buehler.
Urias finished with an MLB-best 20 wins and pitched to a 2.96 ERA in 185.2 innings.
The NL Cy Young Award was an incredibly tight race this past season with arguably eight pitchers who deserved real consideration.
Buehler and Urias both put up fantastic seasons that were worthy of recognition, so they should be proud of what they accomplished despite neither finishing as a Cy Young Award finalist.
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