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.