Every Cy Young Award winner in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history

In their storied history, the St. Louis Cardinals have had many terrific pitchers.  However, only two hurlers have captured the Cy Young Award.

Eleven World Series championships, 19 National League pennants, and 28 playoff appearances, yet the Cardinals have only managed to have two pitchers provide such dominant performances they earned a Cy Young, though one of them did it twice.

1968: Bob Gibson

One of the all-time great seasons, as Gibson posted an amazing 1.12 ERA in the Year of the Pitcher.  That mark remains the lowest single-season ERA for any pitcher since Dutch Leonard surrendered just 0.96 earned runs per nine innings in 1914.  Leonard did this over 224-2/3 frames, and Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown bested Gibby with a 1.04 ERA in 277-1/3 IP in 1906, but among pitchers with 300-plus innings, Gibson’s season (304-2/3 IP) is tops, ahead of Walter Johnson (1.14 in 346 IP in 1913) and Addie Joss (1.16 in 325 IP in 1908).

In addition to that ERA title, which resulted in an astounding 258 ERA+, Gibson led the league with 268 strikeouts, 13 shutouts, 5.8 hits per nine, and a 0.853 WHIP, though his 28 complete games somehow was not tops in league the league.  He won 22 games and amazingly managed to lose nine times.  Obviously, many other pitchers were shutting down offenses that season.

Gibson’s stellar campaign not only earned him the National League Cy Young Award, he also was the NL MVP, along with being an All-Star and receiving a Gold Glove for his defense.  This season certainly was one for the ages, and it was the first Cy Young-winning year for any Cardinals pitcher – though not for long.

1970: Bob Gibson

An ERA increase of exactly two runs generally would be an awful development for a pitcher.  In Gibson’s case, it very much was a big step back from his 1968 season, but coming down from such an otherworldly height simply meant he was very good in 1970 (133 ERA+), good enough to capture his second Cy Young Award.

That 3.12 ERA didn’t lead the league, but Gibson did top the NL with 23 wins – against seven losses – and that .767 winning percentage certainly must have caught the eyes of voters over 50 years ago.  As he did two seasons prior, Gibson started 34 games, finishing 23 of them this time, with just three shutouts and “only” 294 innings but with a slight increase to 274 punchouts.

While Gibson earned another All-Star berth, his seventh season receiving such an honor, and was awarded another Gold Glove, his sixth of what would eventually a total of nine, he finished just fourth in MVP voting, still his second-highest finish behind his ’68 season.

Gibson would garner Cy Young votes again in both 1971 and ’72, finishing fifth and tenth, respectively, and he received mild MVP support in the former season.  However, he had passed his peak by that point.  But what a peak it was.  The Cardinals’ all-time winningest pitcher with 251 career victories had made clear with his two Cy Young awards that he was the best pitcher the team has ever had.