Pitchers to Win Rookie of the Year, Cy Young AND MVP Awards

I came across the topic of this post when reading about a series of anecdotes and interviews done of members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in relation to their memories of their time playing in the city of Pittsburgh either as a member of the Pirates or as a visiting player. The article Pittsburgh's claim to fame from the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of Pittsburgh Quarterly by Douglas Heuck & Dan Fitzpatrick states that one of the Hall of Famers that was interviewed was (at the time of the article being published) the only player to have won the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young AND Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards.

In case you don't know, the Rookie of the Year was first given out in 1947 for the most outstanding rookie league-wide (1949 on for a Rookie in each league). The Cy Young was created in 1956 with one pitcher winning it yearly league-wide. (1967 for a pitcher in each league). The Most Valuable Player award has been awarded to one player in each league since 1931. So based on those dates, the earliest that anyone could have won all three awards is 1956.

Also something else to consider, it seemed that the MVP award was given to pitchers more often from 1950-1990. There has been movement that seems to think that pitchers shouldn't win the MVP award since pitchers already have an award specifically for them, which is the Cy Young Award. So keeping that in mind, I looked at the lists for the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP awards and found that up to the 2012 season, only two pitchers have won all three awards.

Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers is the most recent of the two pitchers to win all three awards. Verlander won the 2006 American League Rookie of the Year award with a 17-9 record and a 3.63 ERA. He won the 2011 Cy Young and 2011 MVP awards with a 24-5 record and a 2.40 ERA.

Hall of Famer Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers was the first player to achieve the honor of winning all three awards. Newcombe was the 1949 National League Rookie of the Year with a 17-8 record and a 3.17 ERA. He won the 1956 Cy Young and 1956 MVP awards with a 27-7 record and a 3.06 ERA.

Here is a video from the BBWAA dinner on January 22, 2012 where Don Newcombe discusses introducing reigning AL Cy Young and MVP Justin Verlander.


So there you have it. Don Newcombe and Justin Verlander are the only two pitchers to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young AND MVP awards.

Sisco Kid.

For Further Reading
- Click Here to see the entire list of players to have won the Rookie of the Year awards from MLB.com
- Click Here to see the entire list of pitchers to have won the Cy Young awards from MLB.com
- Click Here to see the entire list of players to have won the Most Valuable Player awards from MLB.com

Good Friday For Verlander and Posey

It was announced today that  franchise players Justin Verlander of the American League Champion Detroit Tigers and Buster Posey of the World Champion San Francisco Giants agreed to multi-year extensions.

Justin Verlander was signed to a 5-year $140-million dollar extension which starts during the 2015 season. He was already signed for 2013 and 2014 at $20-million per year from the five-year, $79.5 million contract he signed after the 2009 season.  According to the article Verlander agrees to record five-year extension by Jason Beck of MLB.com:

Verlander will make $28 million each season from 2015-2019, the years of the extension, and could vest a $22 million option for 2020 if he finishes in the top five in Cy Young voting in 2019. option for 2020 is $22-million.

In total, his contract calls for a total of 7-years $180-million which breaks down to an average of $25.7 million per year.

Buster Posey signed a 9-year $167-million contract extension. According to the article Buster Posey gets $167M, 9-year deal from Giants by Janie McCauley of the Associated Press:

Posey had been due to make $8 million this year. He instead gets a $7 million signing bonus, with $5 million payable Oct. 15 and the remainder Jan. 15, and his 2013 salary is reduced to $3 million.

He will make $10.5 million in 2014, $16.5 million in 2015, $20 million in 2016 and $21.4 million in each of the following five seasons. The Giants' option is for $22 million with a $3 million buyout

I'm not sure if the Verlander deal with payoff in the long haul but it is good to see both them and the Giants spending money to keep their own players that they develop. I've always said that doing that is the way to go.

So with the amount of money signed by both the Tigers and the Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers, The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the St. Louis Cardinals with the Wainright extension, I don't want to hear complaints from Baseball fans that the New York Yankees keep overpaying players and signing them to long contracts. It seems that the rest of the league is starting to open those cash caches that Forbes recently reported that teams seem to have.

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading
- Click Here to access the career statistics for Justin Verlander from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here to access the career statistics for Buster Posey from Baseball Reference.com