The Blue Jays History of Sigh Youngs

Dylan Cease had one of the best pitching seasons in recent Blue Jays history. For a time, it looked like he might challenge for this year’s Cy Young Award, but after some shoulder fatigue and a couple of less-than-stellar starts down the stretch, he ceded ground to Cam Schlittler of the Yankees and looks destined for a second place finish. 

The Jays have had four Cy winners in their 50-year history: Pat Hentgen, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Robbie Ray. If Cease finishes second, he would be in even rarer company – only three Jays have ever been runner-up. Let’s take a look at them. 

2015 - David Price

David Price had an incredible 2015. He went 18-5 and posted the best ERA in the American League (2.45). He also led the league in fWAR (6.7) and was a full win ahead of Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel. Keuchel, for his part, was an arguably deserving recipient. He put up 20 wins (voters still like those, regardless of the lack of control top pitchers have on their run support) and led the league in innings pitched (232 to Price’s 220.1) and WHIP (1.017 to 1.076). Price had the better FIP of the two (Price’s 2.78 over Keuchel’s 2.91), but both were behind Chris Sale’s 2.73. Sale also led the league in strikeouts (274) and finished fourth in the voting.

Of course, if you were a Jays fan in 2015, you’ll remember that Price didn’t spend the full season in Toronto. On July 30, the Blue Jays sent Matthew Boyd, Jairo Labourt and Daniel Norris to the Tigers in exchange for Price. If there were a half-season Cy Young Award, the post-trade Price would have had it locked up. From July 30 to the end of the season, Price led everyone in wins (going 9-1), ERA (2.30), FIP (2.22) and fWAR (2.6), was second in strikeouts (87) and spearheaded Toronto’s playoff push (they were six games back of the division lead at the time of the trade and would go on to win the division by six games). Price had also won a Cy Young previously while with Tampa Bay. There have been 140 Cy Young Awards given out since the inception of the honour, and only 23 pitchers have won it multiple times. This speaks to the difficulty of winning the award, certainly, but I can’t help but wonder if there is a bias amongst voters that skews against pitchers that have won before.

2008 - Roy Halladay

Speaking of guys that had won before, Roy Halladay received his first Cy Young Award in 2003. He would get four first-place votes in 2008 but finished second behind winner (and future Halladay teammate) Cliff Lee. Doc’s snub here is much less egregious than Price’s. Lee had the edge in both ERA and FIP, and despite Halladay hitting the 20-win mark, Lee had him bested there too with 22 wins. Halladay unsurprisingly led the league in innings pitched (246), complete games (9) and shutouts (2). He also had the league’s best WHIP (1.053) and was third in strikeouts (206); teammate AJ Burnett led the league with 231, while Lee finished ninth with 170. Again, it’s tough to knock Lee’s credentials on the season. He also had the Halladay-like story of having been sent down to the minors the previous season before coming back up and dominating. I’ll twist myself into knots arguing that a Jay got robbed here and there, but in this case I think the voters got it right.

1987 - Jimmy Key

In ‘87, Jimmy Key led the league in both WHIP (1.057) and ERA (2.76). At the time, those were also good for the best single-season WHIP and second-best ERA (behind Dave Stieb’s 1985 ERA of 2.48) in Jays history. Key’s 7.4 bWAR was the high-water mark of his career, and while it was undoubtedly his best season as a Jay, it wasn’t enough to take home the hardware.

Key received four first-place votes, and three other pitchers, all with ties to Toronto, also garnered top spot consideration. Former Jay Doyle Alexander got one, and future Jay Dave Stewart got a pair. Another future Jay, Roger Clemens, got 21 and took home the ‘87 Cy. Clemens’ 20 wins (tied with Stewart) and otherworldly 18 complete games and seven shutouts highlighted his case. Of course, with the power of hindsight and the (alleged) PED use, maybe there is a case to be made to vacate that Cy and award it belatedly to Key. We’ll save the relitigation for another article, but we also can't ignore the bias (ignorance?) of those voting for the award. On paper, 1987 represents the closest the Jays franchise had gotten to a Cy Young Award (Hentgen's win was still almost a decade away), but of course by that point Dave Stieb should have had a pair of wins and arguably as many as four. The whims of the BBWAA can be confounding at the best of times – but that just gives us more fodder to be angry about all these years later. 

On the off chance that the writers get it wrong again and Cease falls down to third, he would join a group of five other Toronto starters: Kevin Gausman in 2023, Alek Manoah in 2022, Hyun Jin Ryu in 2020, Halladay in 2008 and David Wells in  2000. Pretty good company in their own right. With the contract Cease has signed, we should expect to see his name here a few more times.

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