Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley pitches in the ninth inning of a game against the Rays on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, at Busch Stadium.
Following four injury-limited seasons preceded by a stretch of dominance while in the American League, a healthy 2024 earned Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale the accolade that evaded him in seven consecutive All-Star seasons.
On Wednesday, Sale was named the National League鈥檚 Cy Young Award winner, the first time he鈥檚 won the award. Sale鈥檚 2024 campaign included an All-Star nod and a pitching Triple Crown in the National League. The 35-year-old, who went 18-3 with a 2.83 ERA and 224 strikeouts, received 26 of 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers鈥 Association of America, beating out finalists Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes.
Wheeler finished second with four first-place votes, while Skenes, the National League鈥檚 Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award winner, was third in voting with one second-place vote.
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Sale鈥檚 win topped an NL field that included Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley, who was ninth in voting and the lone primary reliever in the NL to appear on ballots. Helsley appeared on three ballots in the voting, garnering one fourth-place vote and two fifth-place votes.
While working from a traditional closer鈥檚 role after a forearm injury hampered him in 2023, Helsley set the Cardinals franchise record for saves with a major league-leading 49 in 53 opportunities. Helsley鈥檚 save total surpassed the 48 Trevor Rosenthal collected as a Cardinal in 2015. The next pitcher closest to Helsley in saves in 2024 was Cleveland鈥檚 Emmanuel Clase, who notched 47 in 50 attempts for the Guardians and finished third in voting for the American League Cy Young award.
An All-Star in 2024, Helsley sported a 2.04 ERA and struck out 79 batters as he set career highs in appearances (65) and innings pitched (66 1/3). His innings total surpassed his total during his All-Star season in 2022, when he logged 64 2/3frames across 54 games.
Following a blown save in his first appearance of the season, Helsley converted a franchise-record 31 consecutive saves. That streak lasted from April 2 to June 2. It was broken on July 5 in an extra-innings road win vs. the Nationals during which Helsley pitched the 10th inning and allowed the automatic runner to score.
The second All-Star season put Helsley alongside Hall of Famers Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter as the only Cardinals closers to be named to multiple All-Star teams.
Along with the All-Star selection, Helsley earned a first-team All-MLB selection alongside Clase and the Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award, the latter of which is bestowed upon the NL鈥檚 top bullpen arm.
Helsley will be eligible for arbitration this winter and is estimated to receive a raise of around $4 million. He is viewed as a top trade candidate for a Cardinals club that is heading into an organizational 鈥渞eset鈥 in 2025.
In recent years, the highest a primary reliever finished in BBWAA voting for the NL鈥檚 top pitching award was fifth place in 2017. Former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen received two third-place votes, five fourth-place votes and six fifth-place votes that year after he notched 47 saves and posted a 1.32 ERA in 68 1/3 innings.
The Braves acquired Sale last December in a trade with the Red Sox that sent young shortstop Vaugh Grissom back to Boston. A seven-time All-Star 鈥 five of which came as a member of the White Sox 鈥 and a 2018 World Series champion with the Red Sox, Sale received AL Cy Young votes in each of his All-Star seasons from 2012 to 2018. The lefty finished within the top six in voting each time, including a second-place finish in 2017 with the Red Sox and a third-place finish in 2014 during his time with the White Sox.
As injuries limited Sale to 151 innings from 2020 to 2023, Sale totaled 177 2/3 frames.
Wheeler, 34, went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA in 200 innings. He was one of four pitchers across MLB in 2024 to reach the 200-inning plateau. The righty struck out 224 batters while leading the NL with 0.96 walks and hits per inning pitched. Wheeler鈥檚 .192 batting average allowed also led the NL.
Skenes, 22, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and struck out 170 batters in 133 innings for the Pirates. He was named the NL Rookie of the Year on Monday with 23 first-place votes. The former first overall pick from the 2023 MLB draft debuted in the majors on May 11, sported a 1.90 ERA through his first 11 big league starts and was the NL starting pitcher in the All-Star Game.
Other NL pitchers to receive Cy Young votes this year include Dylan Cease (San Diego Padres ), Shota Imanaga (Chicago Cubs), Logan Webb (San Francisco Giants), Michael King (Padres), Hunter Greene (Cincinnati Reds), Cristopher Sanchez (Phillies), Reynaldo Lopez (Braves), Sean Manaea (New York Mets) and Aaron Nola (Phillies).
In the American League, Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal unanimously claimed the AL Cy Young Award 鈥 the first Cy Young win of his career. Skubal received all 30 first-place votes to beat finalists Clase and Kansas City鈥檚 Seth Lugo.
Like his lefty counterpart did in the NL, the left-handed Skubal, 28, won the pitching Triple Crown in his league as he went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and strikeouts 228. He totaled a career-high 192 innings.
Royals Seth Lugo finished behind Skubal for the AL hardware after he went 16-9 and posted a 3.00 ERA in 206 2/3 innings in 33 starts.
Clase, the Mariano Rivera Award winner as the AL鈥檚 top reliever, maintained a 0.61 ERA in 74 1/3 innings. Clase, 26, was the first primary reliever to be a Cy Young finalist in either league since 2008.
Other AL pitchers who appeared on writers鈥 ballots include Cole Ragans (Royals), Corbin Burnes (Baltimore Orioles), Logan Gilbert (Seattle Mariners), Framber Valdez (Houston Astros), Kirby Yates (Texas Rangers), Yusei Kikuchi (Astros), and Cade Smith (Guardians).
