Toronto Blue Jays’ Robbie Ray caps career year with American League Cy Young

Despite being a catcher, Robbie Ray led the major leagues in strikeouts this season with 223. He had more than twice as many strikeouts as any other pitcher on his team and finished second to only Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox for most strikeouts by an American League pitcher.

The “robbie ray stats” is the Toronto Blue Jays’ pitcher Robbie Ray, who capped a career year with an American League Cy Young.

On Wednesday, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Robbie Ray won the Cy Young Award, beating out New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole and Chicago White Sox pitcher Lance Lynn.

Ray was 13-7 with a 2.84 ERA (1.04 WHIP) in 193.1 innings thrown, leading all American League pitchers with 6.7 WAR. He used a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, and change-up in his arsenal. Ray joined a group that includes Pat Hentgen in 1996 and Roger Clemens in 1997 and 1998 as the first Blue Jay to win the award since Roy Halladay in 2003.

Ray is a free agent after the 2021 season and is considered one of the best pitchers available. “While winning his award via video chat with MLB Network, he stated, “I’m enjoying free agency.” “”It’s a lot of joy going through the procedure.”

Toronto is “still in the discussion,” according to Ray.

“Obviously, I adore Toronto,” he remarked, “but we’ll see where things go.”

Lynn came in third place in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, while Cole came in second. Ray earned 29 first-place votes out of a total of 30.

Team, Player	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Pts
Blue Jays’ Robbie Ray	29	1	–	–	–	207
Yankees’ Gerrit Cole	1	29	–	–	–	123
White Sox’ Lance Lynn	–	–	11	5	5	48
Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi	–	–	8	6	5	41
White Sox’s Carlos Rodon	–	–	4	8	6	34
Athletics’ Frankie Montas	–	–	2	6	3	21
Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr.	–	–	1	4	3	14
White Sox’s Liam Hendriks	–	–	3	–	1	10
Twins/Blue Jays pitcher Jose Berrios	–	–	1	1	3	8
Athletics’ Chris Bassitt	–	–	–	–	2	2
White Sox’s Lucas Giolito	–	–	–	–	1	1
Angels, Raisel Iglesias	–	–	–	–	1	1

Ray began his career with the Nationals as a 12th-round draft selection in 2010, before being sold to the Detroit Tigers in 2013 in exchange for Doug Fister. Ray debuted in the big leagues in 2014 before being dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a transaction that also included Didi Gregorius from Arizona and Shane Greene from New York.

Ray, 30, was dealt to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2020 in exchange for reliever Travis Bergen by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ray pitched in five games in 2020, with a 4.79 ERA and 1.74 WHIP in 20.2 innings thrown following a 7.84 ERA and 2.00 WHIP in seven starts with the Diamondbacks.

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According to Elias Sports Bureau, his 6.62 overall ERA in 2020 is the highest by a pitcher in a season prior to earning the Cy Young Award.

“I knew I’d have to work hard,” Ray stated, adding, “I knew I wanted to make improvements.”

Ray re-signed with Toronto for a one-year, $8 million deal following the 2020 season. Ray had his finest year of his career in 2021, despite missing the first two weeks of the season due to an elbow injury he sustained late in spring training when tumbling down a flight of stairs. He led the American league in ERA, innings thrown, strikeouts, ERA+, and WHIP.

Ray’s comeback season hinged on improved control. Ray walked only 2.4 hitters per nine innings this season, down from over eight walks per nine innings in 2020. Since 1900, no pitcher has ever increased their walks per nine rate higher from season to season.

Ray also surpassed Yu Darvish’s record of 1,241 strikeouts through 1,000 innings thrown, and is now the all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (11.2).

This report was based on information from The Associated Press.

The “nhl” is the National Hockey League. The Toronto Blue Jays’ Robbie Ray capped his career year with an American League Cy Young Award.