Urías places 3rd in NL Cy Young voting

November 17th, 2022

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers ace Julio Urías finished third in the BBWAA National League Cy Young Award voting behind the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara, who was the unanimous winner, and runner-up Max Fried of the Braves.

Urías received seven second-place votes, nine third-place votes, five fourth-place votes and one fifth-place vote. The Mexican left-hander was also left off of eight ballots. Those results landed Urías six points behind Fried for second place in the voting.

Because of his historic season, Alcantara was the favorite to win the award, but it was a surprise to see Urías land third behind Fried. With Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin and Walker Buehler going down with injuries at various points this past season, Urías was the Dodgers’ workhorse and quickly became the ace of a team that won 111 games.

Urías went 17-7 and won the NL ERA title for the first time in his career with a 2.16 mark. He also led the NL with a 194 ERA+. He was nearly untouchable following the All-Star break.

After understandably being upset about being left off the NL All-Star team once again, Urías took out his frustrations on opposing hitters. In 13 starts following the break, Urías went 9-1 with a 1.26 ERA over 78 1/3 innings. Urías allowed two or fewer runs in each of his last 14 regular-season starts.

For comparison, Alcantara posted a 3.09 ERA in 13 starts following the All-Star break, while Fried went 4-4 with a 2.18 ERA in 11 starts.

Urías finished seventh in the 2021 NL Cy Young Award voting despite being the lone 20-game winner in the Majors. This season he’ll settle for the first top-three finish in his career. Expectations will continue to increase for Urías, who will enter the ‘23 season as the Dodgers’ ace once again.