Scherzer wins Washington's first-ever Cy Young Award

The Nationals handed Max Scherzer the largest free-agent contract ever given to a pitcher two winters ago, believing the right-hander was among the best starters in baseball and worthy of leading their star-studded rotation for years to come.

Two seasons in, Scherzer has lived up to the contract. And tonight came perhaps the most significant validation of that: He won the National League Cy Young Award.

In a battle between several elite pitchers who enjoyed dominant seasons, Scherzer emerged as the best by a significant margin, receiving 25-of-30 first-place votes and 192 total points by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

The Cubs' Jon Lester (one first-place vote, 102 points) and Kyle Hendricks (two first-place votes, 85 points) finished second and third, respectively. Clayton Kershaw also received two first-place votes but finished fifth behind Madison Bumgarner in balloting that took place before the start of the postseason.

Scherzer becomes the first Cy Young Award winner in Nationals club history, not to mention the first in Washington baseball history. (The award was first handed out in 1956, with only one pitcher in the major leagues chosen. Since 1967, one winner from each league has been chosen.)

This is the second Cy Young Award of Scherzer's career - he won the 2013 American League award while pitching for the Tigers - making him the 18th pitcher in history to win the award multiple times.

Scherzer was arguably better in 2015, when he posted a lower ERA, lower WHIP, higher strikeout-to-walk ratio and better WAR than he did in 2016, and threw two no-hitters to boot. But after finishing fifth in voting in a year when Jake Arrieta edged out Zack Greinke for the award, Scherzer ascended to the top spot this year.

The 32-year-old led the league in wins (20), innings (228 1/3), strikeouts (284) and WHIP (0.97), making him the first pitcher to lead the NL in all four of those categories since Sandy Koufax in 1965. His 2.96 ERA, a byproduct of the league-leading 31 home runs he surrendered, ranked only eighth in the NL, but voters looked past that and rewarded the right-hander for his otherwise dominant season.

Among Scherzer's biggest accomplishments this year: He became only the fourth pitcher ever to strike out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, doing it to the Tigers on May 11. He also finished strong, going 8-0 with a 2.97 ERA over his final nine starts, reaching the 20-win milestone on the final day of the regular season.

Hendricks, the most surprising star pitcher in the league this year, went 16-8 with an NL-best 2.13 ERA but threw only 190 innings and struck out only 170 batters. Lester, the ace of the Cubs' 103-win club, went 19-5 with a 2.44 ERA, striking out 197 batters in 202 2/3 innings.

Scherzer becomes the fifth winner of a BBWAA award in Nationals club history, joining Bryce Harper (2015 MVP, 2012 Rookie of the Year), Davey Johnson (2012 Manager of the Year) and Matt Williams (2014 Manager of the Year). The club had only one previous finalist for the Cy Young Award: Gio Gonzalez, who finished third in 2012.