Hyun-Jin Ryu agrees to four-year deal with Toronto Blue Jays

Hyun-Jin Ryu

Left-handed pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu has agreed to a four-year, $80 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, according to reports.

Ryu, 32, finished second in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2019, when he went 14-5 with a league-leading 2.32 ERA in 29 starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Blue Jays are looking to reconfigure their starting rotation this offseason -- they've also added right-handers Tanner Roark and Chase Anderson.

I think this is an overpay, but hey, Toronto is coming off a 95-loss season, and it was going to have to significantly outbid the competition in order to sign a pitcher of Ryu's caliber.

There's no doubt Ryu has quality stuff, but if you look at his injury history, and you wonder if he's going to be productive all four years of the deal. Here are the number of starts he's made in each season of his career:

2013: 30
2014: 26
2015: 0
2016: 1
2017: 25
2018: 15
2019: 29

Last season was the first time Ryu had thrown more than 180 innings in a season since his rookie year in 2013. I'm not sure if he'll hold up, but as a White Sox fan, I am glad he signed somewhere outside of the American League Central Division. I was concerned Ryu would sign with the Minnesota Twins, who still need help for their rotation.

At this point, all the high-end starting pitchers are off the free agent market. The top two remaining guys are Homer Bailey and Ivan Nova, so we'll see if Minnesota moves to address its pitching weaknesses via trade.

Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom are 2019 Cy Young winners

Justin Verlander

After watching the playoffs unfold, I think Gerrit Cole is a better pitcher than Justin Verlander right now. But voting for the Cy Young Award occurs when the regular season ends, and postseason play is not a factor.

Through that lens, it's not a surprise that Verlander edged Cole -- his teammate with the Houston Astros -- for the American League honor, because Verlander's regular season was slightly better than Cole's.

Verlander got 17 of the 30 first-place votes, while Cole got the other 13 to finish second. Tampa Bay's Charlie Morton placed third in the voting, while the White Sox's Lucas Giolito finished sixth.

Verlander led the Major Leagues in wins (21), innings (223), batting average against (.171) and WHIP (0.80). He had a 2.58 ERA in a league-high 34 starts and finished with exactly 300 strikeouts. He also threw a no-hitter Sept. 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cole led the league in strikeouts (326) and had a better ERA than Verlander (2.50), while going 20-5. Cole gave up the same number of earned runs as Verlander (66) in 10.2 fewer innings, but the win total, the innings count and the no-hitter were enough to sway voters toward Verlander.

Really, whichever voters went here, they weren't wrong. I would have voted for Cole, but I can't say Verlander didn't deserve the award -- the guy was 21-6, that's a helluva year.

In the National League, Jacob deGrom's won-loss record over the past two seasons is nothing special. He was 10-9 in 2018, and he went 11-8 in 2019. But he won the Cy Young in both years because his peripherals are out of this world.

His WHIP was 0.97 this season, and that makes him the only qualified NL pitcher with a WHIP below 1.00 in each of the past two years.

This year, deGrom led the National League in strikeouts (255) and ranked second in ERA (2.43) and WHIP. He was third in innings with 204, and posted a 1.89 ERA over his final 23 starts, covering 152 innings.

That was good enough to dominate the voting, as deGrom totaled 29 of the 30 first-place votes. Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers got the only other first-place vote and finished second. Washington's Max Scherzer placed third.

Dodgers take advantage of Cardinals sloppiness in NLCS Game 3

We'll start off with a quick stat about Los Angeles shortstop Hanley Ramirez: The Dodgers are 55-28 when he is in the starting lineup this season. They are 41-45 when he is not.

Ramirez did not play in Game 2 of the NLCS because of a hairline fracture in his ribs, but he managed the pain well enough to get back in the lineup for Game 3. Ramirez collected two bloop singles and an RBI in four at-bats as the Dodgers defeated St. Louis 3-0 Monday night to cut the Cardinals' lead in the series to 2-1. 

Ramirez's presence helped the Dodgers, sure, but the main storylines from this game were poor St. Louis defense and outstanding pitching from Los Angeles starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.

The Dodgers had failed to score a run in their previous 22 offensive innings before breaking through with two tallies in the bottom of the fourth inning off St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright. Both runs were gifts. Cardinals center fielder John Jay and right fielder Carlos Beltran had a miscommunication on a fly ball to right-center off the bat of Los Angeles second baseman Mark Ellis. Jay should have made the play; Beltran could have made the play. Neither man did, and Ellis was credited with a gift double. He would later score on a softly hit double by Adrian Gonzalez.

Yasiel Puig finished the rally with a two-out RBI triple. The hit broke and 0-for-11 slump (with seven strikeouts) for Puig. None of that would have happened if Jay had made the catch on Ellis' ball. It was a poor defensive night for Jay overall. He had four misplays out there, and was fortunate Wainwright was able to pitch over a couple of  his other gaffes. Ramirez added his bloop RBI hit in the eighth inning to cap the scoring, after Jay let a Carl Crawford blooper fall in front of him.

Ryu, a rookie left-hander, couldn't have pitched any better against the most prolific offense in the National League. He fired seven shutout innings, striking out four and allowing just three hits. That performance was exactly what the Dodgers needed. They couldn't afford to go down 3-0 in the series. They had to find a way to beat Wainwright, who had never lost in the postseason previously. Thanks to that performance by Ryu, they are back in the series.

Game 4 is Tuesday night, and both teams will be using their weakest starting pitcher. Lance Lynn, who picked up a win in relief in Game 1, is going for the Cardinals. Ricky Nolasco gets the ball for the Dodgers. St. Louis needs to get its bats going against Nolasco. The Dodgers will be able to throw their pair of aces, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, in Games 5 and 6. St. Louis won Games 1 and 2, which were started by Greinke and Kershaw, respectively. I don't know if the Cardinals will be able to pull that off again, so I feel like it would behoove them to win Game 4. That way, they'll have a little cushion before facing the Dodgers' top two guys again.