No player has ever made such an impact with just 27 games.
Following his unanimous selection as the National League’s Cy Young Award winner, Kershaw was named the 2014 NL Most Valuable Player on Thursday.
“I’m blown away right now. It’s awesome,” said Kershaw, whose 27 starts in 2014 are the fewest games for an MVP winner.
“When you see that ‘Most Valuable’ in front of something? To have people think you really do mean that much to your team, it’s really a huge honor.”
And – like an increasing number of Kershaw’s accomplishments – it is a rare one as well. Kershaw is the 11th pitcher since the Cy Young Award was instituted in 1956 to win both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the same season and the first in the National League since Bob Gibson in 1968.
Only four pitchers have won the NL Cy Young and MVP awards in the same year, joining Gibson and two Dodgers, Sandy Koufax (1963) and Don Newcombe (1956). Only three pitchers have won as many as three Cy Young awards and at least one MVP award – Kershaw, Koufax and Roger Clemens.
“Congratulations to Clayton. It’s a special honor to a special pitcher and a special person,” Koufax said in a statement released by the Dodgers.
Kershaw reacted with “a lot of excitement, a little bit of shock honestly,” he said.
“You know you’re a finalist but I guess I never really anticipated winning that,” Kershaw said. “Especially when you’re associated with people like Andrew (McCutchen) and Giancarlo (Stanton), it’s pretty incredible to say you’re the MVP. I don’t know if I can ever get used to that.
“You just never in a million years think you’re going to win an MVP award.”
The debate over whether a pitcher should win the award over position players who are in the lineup every day raged for much of the 2014 season, and Kershaw’s candidacy gained strength as none of the NL’s top position players were able to match Kershaw’s relentless excellence over the course of the season. Many (McCutchen, Stanton, Troy Tulowitzki, Yadier Molina and Paul Goldschmidt) were sidetracked by their own injuries.
“Congratulations to Clayton Kershaw on winning the 2014 National League MVP. He had a legendary season and is very deserving of the award,” McCutchen posted on Twitter.
Kershaw received 18 of the 30 first-place votes, with Stanton receiving eight first-place votes and McCutchen (last year’s winner) four. No NL pitcher had finished higher than sixth in the MVP voting since Greg Maddux finished third in 1995. Only one NL pitcher even received a first-place vote in the MVP race over the next 18 years. Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge received two first-place votes (and finished eighth) in 2008.
But Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reflected the opinion of many when he wrote Thursday that he “just could not get comfortable with Kershaw as MVP, not when he made only 27 starts and pitched only 1981/3 innings.” Rosenthal voted Kershaw fourth, one of only three voters who did not have Kershaw in one of the top two spots on his ballot.
Veteran right-hander Jamey Wright acknowledged that opinion during an interview on MLB Network Radio this week before pointing out Kershaw’s worthiness of a historic exception.
“I’m OK with this guy winning MVP,” Wright said. “When he was on the hill, the locker room was different.”
The results were different as well. Voters were clearly swayed by the fact the Dodgers were 23-4 during Kershaw’s 27 starts (an .852 winning percentage), just 71-64 (.526) when anyone else in a talented Dodgers’ rotation started.
Over his final 21 starts, the Dodgers won 20 times. When that streak began June 2, the Dodgers were eight games out of first place in the NL West. By the time it ended, Kershaw had pulled the team in his wake to a first-place finish, six games up on their closest pursuer.
During the 21-start stretch – which Kershaw pointed out started just after his wife, Ellen, informed him that she was pregnant with their first child, a daughter due in January – Kershaw had a 1.38 ERA and held opposing batters to a .180 average and .473 OPS. He went at least seven innings in 19 of the 21 games, eight or more 15 times – essentially serving as his own setup man on a team that never did find anyone else reliable in that role.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” Kershaw said when asked if had come to grips with just how dominant and historic his 2014 season was. “You sit back and I try to think about where I was five years ago, where I was six years ago just starting out. If you were to tell me then I would be in that kind of company I would have laughed at you. I was just happy to be there. I just wanted to make it. I never really thought that any of this could happen.
“It’s overwhelming. It really is. … I don’t even know how I can wrap my head around it all.”
Contact the writer: bplunkett@ocregister.com
