The Cubs' Jake Arrieta Snags Highest Honor In Pitching: The Cy Young Award

By Kate Shepherd in News on Nov 19, 2015 5:32PM

Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta/Getty Images

Chicago has its first Cy Young Award winner since the Cubs' Greg Maddux and the White Sox's Jack McDowell won the award in the early '90s. The Cubs' ace pitcher Jake Arrieta took home the National League award on Wednesday evening.

He won with 17 of the possible 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America, the Cubs announced in a press release. He beat out Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke for the highest honor in pitching.

Arrieta is only the fifth pitcher in franchise history to snag the award, joining an elite club including Fergie Jenkins (1971), Bruce Sutter (1979), Rick Sutcliffe (1984) and Greg Maddux (1992).

A key player in the Cubs' amazing 2015 season, he went 22-6 in 33 starts with a 1.77 earned run average (ERA). He led the entire major league in wins and had the lowest ERA by a Cubs pitcher in 96 years. He threw his first no-hitter in Los Angeles on Aug. 30 striking out 12 batters and walking only one.

Despite all of the accolades he won during the season like N.L. pitcher of the month awards in August and September, he is amazed by the award.

"It makes you step back and really appreciate that you're in the history books with Hall of Famers," he said in a conference call with reporters, according to ESPN. "It's special. The more time goes by, it's going to only make me appreciate it more."

What makes this even more amazing is that the Cubs are the first team to win three of the four BBWAA awards since the Seattle Mariners in 2001. Third baseman Kris Bryant won MLB Rookie of the Year and manager Joe Maddon won Manager of the Year this week. MVP will be announced tonight but no Cubs players are amongst the three NL finalists.