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Full list of Chicago Cubs pitchers who have won the NL Cy Young award
Justin Steele is in serious consideration for the National League Cy Young award this year. Here is the elite group of Cubs pitchers he would join should he take home the award.
The Chicago Cubs have a legitimate National League Cy Young award candidate in Justin Steele. This is only Steele's second year in Major League Baseball, but he has already established himself as the Cubs' ace and as one of the best pitchers in the game right now.
Monday's Labor Day contest against the San Francisco Giants saw Steele turn in 8 shutout innings while setting a career-high in strikeouts with 12. It was the latest example of the 28-year-old's convincing march to the end of the season and claim to the most prestigious pitching award in baseball.
Steele's season ERA is now 2.55 (2nd in MLB), and he is tied for the lead in Wins with 16 with a WHIP of 1.14 (tied for 6th in MLB). This kind of dominance doesn't just walk in the door every day, and the Cubs certainly haven't seen this caliber of pitching in years. Should Steele win the Cy Young, he would be one of only five other Cubs pitchers to ever win the award and the first to do it in eight years.
Here is the full list of Cubs pitchers who have taken home the National League Cy Young award throughout the franchise's long history.
Jake Arrieta: 2015
From 2015 to 2016, former Cubs ace Jake Arrieta logged one of the most dominant stretches in baseball history. The second half of Arrieta's 2015 season was particularly dominant, where the bearded right-hander tossed 107.1 innings to the tune of a magnificent 0.75 ERA.
In a year where Los Angeles Dodgers co-aces Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw also put up video game-like numbers, Arrieta was able to squeak out the NL Cy Young with a 1.77 ERA over 229 innings with 236 strikeouts and a league-leading 22 wins. Arrieta also tied Kershaw in games started and complete games, one of which was a no-hitter against Kershaw and an elite Dodgers lineup.
Perhaps even more impressive than the no-hitter was Arrieta's complete game shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Wild Card game that year. Arrieta fanned 11 hitters and only allowed 5 hits on the evening to give the Cubs their first postseason victory since 2003.
Arrieta's herculean dominance continued into the 2016 season, where he threw another no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds and was part of an elite pitching staff that helped win the Cubs their first World Series since 1908.
Arrieta was one of the greatest trade acquisitions in Cubs history and he was viewed as nothing more than a back-of-the-rotation starter when the Baltimore Orioles shipped him to Chicago alongside Pedro Strop in 2013.
Greg Maddux: 1992
Prior to his historic decade-long stretch with the Atlanta Braves, Greg Maddux was the ace of the Cubs pitching staff from 1988-1992. His contract year with the Cubs in 1992 was the most impressive of his Cubs tenure, where he led the league in wins (20), games started (35) and innings pitched (268) while playing to a 2.18 ERA in his Cy Young campaign.
Although Maddux left that offseason, 1992 kicked off four consecutive years of National League Cy Young awards for the Hall of Famer. Randy Johnson is the only other pitcher in MLB history to match that record and both men are also the only pitchers to do it three times in a row.
Despite securing the Cy Young award, Maddux and the Cubs could not come to an agreement on a contract extension, and he left to play for the Braves on a five-year $28 million deal. Although a pitcher of Maddux's caliber would be making close to or more than $28 million in a single season, Maddux's contract with the Braves made him the fourth highest-paid player in the league at the time.
Maddux is truly one of the best pitchers who ever played for the Cubs and he left the league an all-time record of 18 gold gloves (which stands today), four Cy Young awards, eight All-Star appearances, and a World Series ring. The Cubs retired his number 31 in 2009 and he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Rick Sutcliffe: 1984
Rick Sutcliffe certainly had a respectable MLB career, and much of it was in a Cubs uniform. Although he won the National League Cy Young award in 1984, by all measures of the game, he probably should not have. New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden was the runner-up in the race, but he had better statistics than Sutcliffe in almost every major pitching category.
Innings Pitched | ERA | K | W/L | WAR | WHIP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dwight Gooden | 218 | 2.60 | 276 | 17-9 | 5.5 | 1.073 |
Rick Sutcliffe | 150.1 | 2.69 | 155 | 16-1 | 3.9 | 1.078 |
This is a real head-scratcher. Whether it was the fact that Gooden was a 19-year-old rookie or the fact that baseball writers used to put way too much value on wins and losses, the guy simply got snubbed by today's standards. That's not to take anything away from Sutcliffe, as he was a two-time All-Star for the Cubs and one of the team's main starting pitchers throughout the 80s. He is also a color broadcaster for the Cubs' Marquee Sports Network and regularly fills in for Jim Deshaies.
Bruce Sutter: 1979
Bruce Sutter was a truly remarkable relief pitcher and arguably the most dominant closer of the 70s and 80s. In 1979, he became one of only nine pitchers to ever win a Cy Young when he led the league in saves with 37 and struck out 110 batters in 101.1 innings pitched with a 2.22 ERA.
Again, by modern standards, Sutter probably shouldn't have won the Cy Young award. Starters Joe Niekro and J.R. Richard both had career seasons where they each surpassed 250 innings pitched. Richard was particularly fantastic, with a 2.71 ERA and 313 strikeouts. But this was way before the Reliever of the Year award was even invented, and Sutter was able to sway enough voters with his dominant closing abilities.
To this day, Sutter has the second most saves in Cubs history (133) even though he only spent five seasons with the club.
Fergie Jenkins: 1971
Cubs legend Fergie Jenkins secured the very first Cy Young award in Cubs history in 1971. This was back when relief pitchers were used much less often, and pitchers regularly went the distance.
Even by the standards of the day, Jenkins' 30 complete games in 1971 was still a remarkable accomplishment and one that has only been replicated twice since. Jenkins also led the league in wins (24) games started (39) and innings pitched (325) with a 2.77 ERA.
Jenkins' uniform number was also 31, and it was retired in 2009 alongside Greg Maddux. His other accolades include 3 All-Star appearances, the NL strikeouts leader in 1969, and induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
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