The two pitchers who led their league in Box-Toppers points in 2022 also won both Cy Young Awards Wednesday.
Justin Verlander of the Astros and Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins won the 2022 Cy Young Awards. Both also led their league’s pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2022.
Justin Verlander of the Astros, who led all players in 2022 with 26.0 Box-Toppers points, won the American League Cy Young Award. And Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, who led all National League players with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young Award.
Box-Toppers Cy Young Award ballot
Here are Box-Toppers' ballot selections for Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) Cy Young Awards. The ballot required voters to rank the top five pitchers in each league.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022.
| AL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | Astros | 26.0 |
| 2 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | White Sox | 20.4 |
| 3 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | Angels | 24.7 |
| 4 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | Rays | 16.4 |
| 5 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | Astros | 16.0 |
| NL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | Marlins | 21.1 |
| 2 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | Brewers | 20.8 |
| 3 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | Giants | 19.8 |
| 4 | Urias, Julio 3652 | Dodgers | 19.4 |
| 5 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | Diamondbacks | 18.7 |
The awards are voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Votes are cast at the end of the regular season, before the start of the postseason, and were announced Wednesday.
This is the 11th time in 28 chances (since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995) that both AL and NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points won the Cy Young Award in both leagues. The last time it happened was in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when Trevor Bauer of the Reds, who led NL players with 10.0 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young and Shane Bieber of Cleveland, who led AL players with 11.4 points, won the AL Cy Young. The last time it happened in a full, 162-game season was 2015, when Jake Arrieta of the Cubs, who led NL players with 29.1 points, won the NL Cy Young and Dallas Keuchel of the Astros, who led AL players with 21.4 points, won the AL Cy Young.
Both pitchers were voted unanimously for the award, only the second time both Cy Young winners won by unanimous vote in the same year since the award’s inception in 1956. The other time was 1968, when Denny McLain of the Tigers won the AL award and Bob Gibson of the Cardinals won the NL award. (Elsewhere on this page a look at voting for the AL Cy Young Award and voting for the NL Cy Young Award.)
AL Cy Young
Verlander led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2022, securing the lead only on Oct. 4, the next-to-last day of the season.
Verlander passed Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani (24.7 points) for the lead that day. Ohtani finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting, behind second-place finisher Dylan Cease of the White Sox and third-place finisher Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays.
In fact, while Ohtani’s 24.7 Box-Toppers points was second overall and second among AL pitchers, he was placed in third place on Box-Toppers’ AL Cy Young ballot. That’s because he earned 5.0 of those points as a designated hitter. If we subtract his non-pitcher points from his total, that gives him 19.7 points, which is behind the 20.4 points earned by White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease, who ranks third among AL pitchers and fifth among all players.
Manoah, voted in third place on baseball writers’ AL Cy Young ballot, finished with 13.1 Box-Toppers points, 14th among AL pitchers and 30th among all players.
Box-Toppers’ top five AL pitchers all earned votes for the award—besides Verlander, Ohtani and Cease, they are:
Shane McClanahan of the Rays, voted in sixth place, who had 16.4 Box-Toppers points, fourth among AL pitchers and 11th overall.
Framber Valdez of the Astros, voted in fifth place, who had 16.0 Box-Toppers points, fifth among AL pitchers and 14th overall.
Box-Toppers’ highest-ranking AL pitcher who did not earn Cy Young votes was Triston McKenzie of the Guardians, whose 15.7 Box-Toppers points was sixth among AL pitchers and 15th overall.
Box-Toppers’ lowest-ranking AL pitcher who received Cy Young votes was Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays, who finished ninth with one fifth-place vote and had 12.7 Box-Toppers points, 15th among AL pitchers, 31st overall.
Verlander won Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 18 times in 2022, including winning overall Player of the Day honors eight times. He earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point for each Player of the Game honor and a bonus 1.0 point for each Player of the Day honor, giving him 26.0 total points.
This is Verlander’s third AL Cy Young Award. He also won in 2011 with the Tigers and 2019 with the Astros. In 2011, he led AL pitchers with 24.4 Box-Toppers points (third overall). In 2019, he had 27.5 Box-Toppers points (a career single-season high), but finished second among AL pitchers (and second overall) behind then-teammate Gerrit Cole with 32.2 points.
Verlander earned his second career Box-Toppers Player of the Year honor in 2022, leading all players in Box-Toppers points. He previously did it 10 years ago in 2012 when he had 24.8 points with the Tigers. That year, Verlander finished a close second place in Cy Young voting, behind winner David Price of the Rays. Price received 14 first place votes while Verlander had 13. Price was 10th among AL pitchers in 2012 Box-Toppers points with 14.1.
Verlander also set the record in 2022 for most Box-Toppers points gained from one season to the next since tracking began in 1995. He earned no points in 2021, recovering from elbow surgery, coming back in 2022 to lead all players with 26.0 points. That broke the record set by Blake Snell of the Rays in 2018, who gained 22.2 points, earning 5.0 points in 2017 and 27.2 in 2018.
NL Cy Young
Alcantara led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2022 with 21.1, which was third among all players.
Alcantara led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings for 10 of the final 11 weeks of the season. The gap between Alcantara and the pack narrowed as the season neared the end. In fact, Giants pitcher Carlos Rodon ranked ahead in the Sept. 15 player rankings.
In the final days of the season, several pitchers had the chance to snipe the lead from him, but Alcantara finished with a 0.3-point lead over second-place NL pitcher, Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers (20.8). Woodruff was the highest-ranking NL pitcher to receive no Cy Young votes.
Four of the five top NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points received Cy Young votes. Besides Alcantara, they were:
Rodon, who finished sixth in voting and whose 19.8 Box-Toppers points was third among NL pitchers, sixth overall.
Julio Urias of the Dodgers, who finished third in voting and whose 19.4 points was fourth among NL pitchers, seventh overall.
Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks, who finished fifth in voting and whose 18.7 points was fifth among NL pitchers, eighth overall.
Eight of the top 10 NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points also received Cy Young votes. Among that group is Max Fried of the Braves, whose 16.0 Box-Toppers points was eighth among NL pitchers and who finished second in NL Cy Young voting.
Twelve NL pitchers received Cy Young votes, including two relievers: Edwin Diaz of the Mets, ninth in voting, whose 7.0 Box-Toppers points was 40th among NL pitchers and second among NL closers and Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, 12th in voting, whose 6.0 points was 50th among NL pitchers and fifth among NL closers.
Alcantara earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 15 times in 2022, including four times as overall Player of the Day and three other times as NL Player of the Day. He received 1.0 Box-Toppers point for each Player of the Game honors, a bonus 1.0 point for each Player of the Day honor and a bonus 0.7 points for each NL Player of the Day honor, giving him 21.1 total points.
This is Alcantara’s first Cy Young Award and the first season in which he had more than 10.0 Box-Toppers points. In the five seasons in which he’s earned points, his best previous season was 2021 with the Marlins when he had 9.7 points, 27th among NL pitchers.
IBWAA Cy Young vote
The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America voted Verlander and Alcantara as their 2022 Cy Young winners. Box-Toppers votes in the IBWAA awards and also voted for both for the awards. Here are the IBWAA results:
AL Cy Young
1st Place: Justin Verlander, Astros - 454 points
2nd Place: Dylan Cease, White Sox - 246 points
3rd Place: Shohei Ohtani, Angels - 196 points
NL Cy Young
1st Place: Sandy Alcantara, Marlins - 433 points
2nd Place: Julio Urias, Dodgers - 179 points
3rd Place: Max Fried, Braves - 146 points
The IBWAA was established in 2009 to serve the baseball writing community, representing more than 750 baseball content creators. Voting for full season awards takes place at the close of the regular season each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds Hall of Fame, preseason prediction, and All-Star Game voting.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
Related
American League Cy Young Award voting
Justin Verlander of the Astros was voted 2022 AL Cy Young Award winner as the league’s top pitcher. He also led AL pitchers in 2022 Box-Toppers points. Below are the AL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022 and their rank in points among AL pitchers.| AL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Verlander | Astros | pi sp | 30 | 210 | 26.0 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Dylan Cease | White Sox | pi sp | 14 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 97 | 20.4 | 3 | |
| 3 | Alek Manoah | Blue Jays | pi sp | 7 | 13 | 10 | 87 | 13.1 | 14 | ||
| 4 | Shohei Ohtani | Angels | pi sp | 9 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 82 | 24.7 | 2 | |
| 5 | Framber Valdez | Astros | pi sp | 1 | 12 | 14 | 16.0 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Shane McClanahan | Rays | pi sp | 1 | 8 | 10 | 16.4 | 4 | |||
| 7 | Shane Bieber | Guardians | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 5 | 13.7 | 13 | |||
| 8 | Nestor Cortes | Yankees | pi sp | 3 | 3 | 15.4 | 9 | ||||
| 9 | Gerrit Cole | Yankees | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 15.4 | 8 | ||||
| 9 | Kevin Gausman | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 12.7 | 15 |
National League Cy Young Award voting
Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins was voted 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner as the league’s top pitcher. He also led NL pitchers in 2021 Box-Toppers points. Below are the NL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022 and their rank in points among NL pitchers.| NL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandy Alcantara | Marlins | pi sp | 30 | 210 | 21.1 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Max Fried | Braves | pi sp | 10 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 72 | 16.0 | 8 | |
| 3 | Julio Urias | Dodgers | pi sp | 7 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 66 | 19.4 | 4 | |
| 4 | Aaron Nola | Phillies | pi sp | 5 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 48 | 16.0 | 9 | |
| 5 | Zac Gallen | Diamondbacks | pi sp | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 45 | 18.7 | 5 | |
| 6 | Carlos Rodon | Giants | pi sp | 3 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 30 | 19.8 | 3 | |
| 7 | Corbin Burnes | Brewers | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 20 | 15.4 | 10 | |
| 8 | Yu Darvish | Padres | pi sp | 3 | 1 | 7 | 16.8 | 7 | |||
| 9 | Edwin Diaz | Mets | pi cp | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7.0 | 40 | |||
| 10 | Kyle Wright | Braves | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14.4 | 12 | |||
| 11 | Logan Webb | Giants | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 9.7 | 26 | ||||
| 12 | Ryan Helsley | Cardinals | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 6.0 | 50 |