Top 30 Cy Young Award Winners of all-time
By Jason Evans
25. Catfish Hunter 1974
25 wins
2.49 ERA
0.98 WHIP
The A’s of the mid-1970’s were a fun team. The mustaches. The crazy owner who wanted to change baseball. (Like making the baseballs orange). They also had awesome, hall-of-fame players. They had Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, and Joe Rudi.
On the pitching side, they had Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers shutting down games. They also had Jim “Catfish” Hunter and he may not have had a better season than his Cy Young Award season in 1974 which finds himself at 25 on the list.
Hunter was eighth among all players in WAR and sixth among pitchers with 6.9. He was tied for the league lead in wins at 25 and lead the league in ERA at 2.49. He also lead the AL in WHIP with 0.98. He started 41 games which was second and completed 23 (!) which was only sixth in the league. His FIP was 3.17 which was eighth.
Hunter would finish second for the Cy Young Award the next season and would become one of the first free agents to sign a contract, signing a big deal with the Yankees in 1976. Unfortunately, he would retire after his age 33 season in 1979 after having all sorts of arm problems after the 1976 season.
He would tragically pass away in 1999 from ALS.