Honestly, looking back at the 2023 Cy Young winners feels like staring at a glitch in the Matrix of modern baseball. We finally saw Gerrit Cole get his flowers. It felt like a decade in the making, didn't it? Then you have Blake Snell, a guy who somehow manages to be the most dominant and most frustrating pitcher on the planet simultaneously.
Baseball is funny.
The 2023 season didn't just give us two trophies; it gave us a masterclass in how different paths to greatness can be. One guy was a robot of consistency. The other was a tightrope walker who refused to fall.
Gerrit Cole and the End of the Wait
Gerrit Cole winning the American League Cy Young in 2023 was basically the sports equivalent of Leonardo DiCaprio finally getting his Oscar for The Revenant. He had been the bridesmaid so many times. 2019? Runner-up. 2021? Runner-up. He’s been a top-five finisher more times than most "aces" have All-Star appearances.
But 2023 was different. It was undeniable.
He didn't just win; he swept the floor. Cole was a unanimous selection, grabbing all 30 first-place votes from the BBWAA. You don't see that every day. He finished with a 2.63 ERA and logged 209 innings. In an era where managers treat a starting pitcher in the seventh inning like a ticking time bomb, Cole was a throwback. He led the AL in innings, WHIP (0.98), and shutouts.
He was the only thing keeping the Yankees' season from descending into total chaos.
The Stats That Mattered for Cole
If you want to know why the writers didn't even blink before voting for him, look at the consistency. Cole allowed two runs or fewer in 26 of his 33 starts. That is absurd. He was the definition of "giving your team a chance to win."
- ERA: 2.63 (1st in AL)
- Innings Pitched: 209 (1st in AL)
- WHIP: 0.98 (1st in AL)
- WAR (Baseball-Reference): 7.4
The guy was a machine. While names like Sonny Gray and Kevin Gausman put up incredible years, they were playing for second place the moment Cole stepped on the mound in September and refused to blink.
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Blake Snell: The Statistical Anomaly
Now, the National League side of the 2023 Cy Young winners is where things get... weird. Blake Snell won his second career Cy Young, becoming only the seventh pitcher to win the award in both leagues. That puts him in the company of legends like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Max Scherzer.
But Snell’s season was a fever dream.
He finished with a 2.25 ERA, which is spectacular. He also led the majors in walks with 99. You read that right. He was the best pitcher in the league while also being the most "charitable" with free passes. It shouldn't work. By all the laws of physics and baseball logic, if you walk 99 guys, you should be getting hammered.
How Did Snell Do It?
He simply didn't allow hits. He allowed 5.75 hits per nine innings. That’s the kind of number that makes hitters want to retire and take up competitive gardening. When he got into trouble—which was often—he just struck everybody out. He finished with 234 strikeouts in 180 innings.
The voting wasn't as unanimous as Cole’s, but it wasn't particularly close either. Snell took 28 of the 30 first-place votes. Logan Webb and Zac Gallen were the only others to sniff a top spot on a ballot. Webb actually threw nearly 40 more innings than Snell, which sparked a huge debate about "workload vs. dominance." In the end, the voters chose the guy who was impossible to hit.
What Most People Get Wrong About 2023
There's this narrative that 2023 was a "weak" year for pitching. That’s just not true. It was a transition year. We saw the rise of the "Stuff+" era where guys like Spencer Strider were putting up historic strikeout rates, but they lacked the polish or the luck to take down the veterans.
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People also forget how bad Snell started. On May 19th, he was 1-6 with an ERA over 5.00. Most fans were ready to trade him for a bag of batting practice balls. Then he went on a run that looked like a video game on rookie mode. From late May to the end of the season, he was untouchable.
Why These Wins Still Matter Today
The 2023 Cy Young winners represent the two schools of thought in modern pitching. Cole is the "Volume King." He represents the value of the workhorse who takes the ball every five days and stays in the game. Snell is the "Efficiency Peak." He represents the modern idea that it doesn't matter how many pitches you throw or how many guys you walk, as long as nobody crosses home plate.
As we move further into the 2020s, the "Cole model" is becoming rarer. Teams are pulling starters earlier. Pitchers are throwing harder but for shorter bursts. Cole’s 2023 might be one of the last times we see a unanimous winner who also leads the league in innings.
Key Takeaways for Baseball Fans
- Reliability wins trophies: Cole’s 26 "quality" starts were the bedrock of his unanimous win.
- ERA is still king: Despite the walk totals, Snell's 2.25 ERA was too low for voters to ignore.
- League history: Blake Snell’s dual-league wins place him in the top 1% of pitchers to ever play the game.
- The Yankee drought is over: Cole was the first Yankee to win the award since Roger Clemens in 2001.
If you’re looking to settle a debate at the sports bar, remember this: Cole was the better "pitcher" in 2023, but Snell had the better "season" in terms of raw run prevention. Both deserved their spots on the mantle.
To really understand the impact of these wins, take a look at the current pitching leaderboards. You'll notice how many young arms are trying to replicate Snell’s "unhittable" style versus how few are actually capable of matching Cole’s durability. The 2023 season was a bridge between the old guard of workhorses and the new guard of elite specialists.
Pay attention to the walk rates of current Cy Young contenders. If someone is hovering around 90-100 walks but keeping their ERA under 2.50, they aren't "getting lucky"—they’re just following the Blake Snell blueprint. Conversely, look for the guys hitting the 200-inning mark; they are the true heirs to Gerrit Cole’s 2023 throne.