Cleveland Indians: Shane Bieber wins American League Cy Young Award

As announced on Wednesday night by Major League Baseball, Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Shane Bieber has won the 2020 American League Cy Young Award.

The Cleveland Indians had another player collect a piece of hardware following the season. Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday night (Nov. 11) that Shane Bieber was the American League Cy Young Award winner. The award is Bieber’s first of his career and comes in just his third season in the majors. Bieber becomes just the seventh unanimous Cy Young Award winner in Major League Baseball history.

This is the fifth Cy Young Award for a Cleveland Indians pitcher since 2007. Only Detroit and Houston have had multiple winners over that time span in the American League with each having two.

The last Cleveland Indians pitcher to win the Cy Young Award was Corey Kluber who won his second in 2017. While the Indians have had five winners since 2007, they’ve only had six in team history with the other being Gaylord Perry in 1972.

As for Shane Bieber, his Cy Young Award comes after a historical 2020 campaign where he became the first pitcher since 2006’s Johan Santana to complete the Major League Baseball Triple Crown. To do so, Bieber logged eight wins, maintained a 1.62 ERA and strikeouts with 122.

Bieber also broke the record for strikeouts per nine, averaging 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Entering the season, no pitcher had ever achieved 12 strikeouts per nine, let alone 14. The shortened season may have had an impact on those numbers, but they are still impressive. Bieber also led the majors in ERA+ with a mark of 281 and FIP at 2.07.

Additionally, Bieber topped the stat charts in win-loss percentage at .889, holding an 8-1 record over his 12 starts. He was also able to log an American League best 5.4 hits per nine innings.

At just 25-years old, the future is bright for Shane Bieber and the Cleveland Indians. He’s already proven to be dominant throughout a season and one the big stage. Just a year ago he was named the 2019 MLB All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and now he captures his first of what is expected to be many Cy Young Awards.