THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D3
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POSTTo thwart sign stealing in the postseason, the Nats employed a complex series of rotating signs for catchers Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki.
eras, but in the analytics age, the
value of pitchers’ wins has been
reduced to the point that voters
barely notice them.
Still, Scherzer might have tak-
en home his fourth Cy Young on
Wednesday or Ryu his first had
the former not lost a half-dozen or
so second-half starts to injury or
had the latter not posted a
7.48 ERA in August after looking
like the runaway front-runner
(12-2 with a 1.45 ERA) for the
season’s first four months.
“It just felt like I was battling
the whole second half to get
healthy and find a way back on
the mound when we were in the
playoff hunt,” Scherzer said dur-
ing the MLB Network telecast.
The best pitcher on the planet?
Based on their most recent per-
formances, it might be Cole.
Based on career credentials, may-
be Verlander, Scherzer or Ker-
shaw. But over the past
24 months, deGrom’s body of
work, at the very least, stacks up
with anyone’s.
Baseball’s awards week con-
cludes with the MVP awards
Thursday.
[email protected]well), though many believe he was
robbed in 2018, when he narrowly
lost to Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell.
“2011 was a magical season, but
I hadn’t really had to grind
through much at that time,” Ver-
lander said on the MLB Network
telecast of the awards announce-
ment. “A lot has changed since
then, personally and profession-
ally, but it just makes it that much
sweeter. Having come so close a
couple other times — it’s just such
an incredible feeling.”
DeGrom, meanwhile, joins
Kershaw, Scherzer, Verlander and
Corey Kluber as the only multiple
Cy Young winners among active
pitchers and the 11th in history
(and first since Scherzer in 2016-
17) to win back-to-back. He led the
NL this year with 255 strikeouts,
and his ERA of 2.43 was second
only to Ryu’s.
“I said it was a dream to win
one,” deGrom said. “But to win
back-to-back, honestly, I’m kind
of speechless right now.”
Pitching for mediocre Mets
teams, deGrom’s win-loss records
during his Cy Young seasons —
10-9 in 2018, 11-8 in 2019 — might
have disqualified him in previousfrom a “lifetime achievement
award” mentality among voters,
which could have served as a
reasonable tiebreaker in such a
close race. Before this year, Ver-
lander had won just one Cy
Young, in 2011 with Detroit (pick-
ing up the MVP award that year ascompleted before the start of the
postseason, which means neither
Cole’s dazzling October perfor-
mance (4-1, 1.72) nor Verlander’s
shaky one (1-4, 4.33) factored into
the vote.
It’s impossible to say, but Ver-
lander may have also benefitedlander topped his Houston Astros
teammate Cole to win his second
Cy Young award. Verlander
earned 17 first-place votes, with
the other 13 going to Cole. Tampa
Bay’s Charlie Morton, himself a
former Astro who pitched in the
same rotation as Verlander and
Cole in 2018, finished a distant
third.
Verlander, a near-lock to make
the Hall of Fame on the first
ballot, had a resurgent and
charmed 2019 season at age 36,
going 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA while
mixing in his third career no-hit-
ter and first career 300-strikeout
season and passing 3,000 strike-
outs for his career. His WHIP
(walks plus hits per inning
pitched) of 0.803 was the second
best in the past 100 years, behind
only Pedro Martinez in 2000
(0.737).
The cases for Verlander and
Cole (20-5, 2.50 ERA, 326 strike-
outs) were considered almost im-
possible to separate, but it is
worth noting that both Houston-
area writers with a Cy Young vote
— who presumably saw both
pitchers the most in 2019 — voted
for Verlander. All balloting wasBY DAVE SHEININ
The consensus-best-pitcher-
on-the-planet label has moved
around a few times these past few
years, passing from Clayton Ker-
shaw to Max Scherzer and, begin-
ning around the second half of
2019, to Gerrit Cole. But there is at
least a case to be made that Jacob
deGrom deserves a prominent
place in that debate — a case that
gained momentum when he
earned his second straight Na-
tional League Cy Young award on
Wednesday.
For the second straight year, it
wasn’t even close. DeGrom, the
New York Mets’ right-handed ace,
earned 29 of a possible 30 first-
place votes in balloting by mem-
bers of the Baseball Writers’ Asso-
ciation of America, easily outpac-
ing Los Angeles Dodgers lefty
Hyun-Jin Ryu, who earned the
only first-place vote that didn’t go
to deGrom and finished second.
Washington Nationals aces
Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg
finished third and fifth, respec-
tively.
In the American League vote,
veteran right-hander Justin Ver-
Mets’ deGrom, Astros’ Verlander both win their second Cy Young awards
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom earned 29 of 30 first-place votes
to become the 11th pitcher to win back-to-back Cy Young awards.move to set No. 3.
The Nationals also decided
that they would use multiple
signs regardless of whether
there was a runner on second
base or not. No one on? Runner
on first? Let’s make sure the
catcher runs through a series of
signs anyway, just in case.
“It was our best way to
counteract anything that might
have been going on,” Menhart
said.
“We just had our guard up,”
Doolittle said.
Next came the way the Nats
employed their signs, which was
nontraditional. Rather than just
use, say, the second sign the
catcher put down, the Nats
might “chase the two.” That
meant the pitcher would watch
for the catcher to put two fingers
down and then throw the pitch
that corresponded to the
following sign. Or they could
play “outs plus one.” So if there
was one out, the pitch would be
the second sign the catcher put
down. If there were no outs, it
would be the first sign. “Strikes
plus one” worked the same way.
That’s a lot of thought, right?
But it’s a small cost in
preparation if it frees the mind
of the pitcher in competition.
“This is the way the game’s
going to go now,” Menhart said.
“You’re going to have to have
this. Sign-stealing has become
quite an art.”
Or, in the Astros’ case, a
science. Those are my words, not
Menhart’s. Major League
Baseball has a problem on its
hands, perhaps one involving
not only Houston’s technology
but its morals. The relief: We’re
not sitting here talking about
the 2019 World Series champion
Houston Astros potentially
cheating because the Nationals
met them in that series and were
prepared — regardless of the
Astros’ talent and regardless of
their methods.
[email protected]For more by Barry Svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.numbers you want or go digging
further. Menhart said the
Nationals’ video staff worked
with the coaches and front office
and eventually with the players
to combat subterfuge regardless
of its origins. When the Nats had
their first workout after
sweeping the Cardinals, the
coaching staff revealed to the
pitchers their
counterintelligence plan to fend
off the Astros.
“We were 100 percent on
board with it,” Doolittle said.
There were some layers to the
Nats’ plan for Houston. First,
each pitcher had to have his own
set of signs, and catchers Yan
Gomes and Kurt Suzuki had to
be familiar with each one. So the
staff printed out cards with the
codes and had them laminated.
The catchers could have them in
their wristbands, a la an NFL
quarterback with play-calls
strapped to his forearm, and the
pitchers would have them in
their caps. Each pitcher had five
sets of signs, and they could
change them from game to game
— or even batter to batter, if
necessary. Using the set labeled
No. 2 but worried the Astros
were catching on? The pitcher
could signal to the catcher tosign, shake it off, do it again,
pitch,’ ” Menhart said.
Stealing signs, with a runner
on second, is considered fair
game. The burden is on the
defensive team to make sure it’s
properly coding its intentions.
The problem: With a camera
in center field, a team doesn’t
need a runner on second base.
Players, coaches or other staff
members could watch the video
feed and figure out signs on
their own.
“If that’s true — and they’re
just allegations for now — why
are we to think they only did it
in 2017?” Doolittle said
Wednesday by phone. “If they
did it and they won the World
Series, what’s to stop them from
continuing to do it?”
There is some circumstantial
evidence that something was up
with the Astros. In 2016, their
hitters struck out 23.4 percent of
the time, the fourth-highest rate
in the game. In 2017, the year the
Athletic report said the camera
was installed, that rate dropped
to 17.3 percent, the lowest in
baseball. At home in 2017, the
Astros struck out 16.7 percent of
the time, as opposed to
17.9 percent on the road.
Put whatever stock in thosecalling for, showed that feed on
a screen in the tunnel between
the dugout and clubhouse and
then clanged on a trash can to
send an audible signal to the
hitter. Clang and an off-speed
pitch was on the way. Silence
and here came the fastball.
“I’m not here to talk about
illegal stuff with technology,”
Menhart said by phone
Wednesday. “If they were doing
such things, they’re going to
have to answer to a higher
power than winning a baseball
game.”
Nationals reliever Sean
Doolittle said, “When we start
getting into technology and only
one team has access to it, that’s
scary.”
Given the general paranoia
about sign-stealing — legal and
not — that grips the game now,
the Nationals began to mix their
signs more elaborately when
they faced the Milwaukee
Brewers in the wild-card game,
the Los Angeles Dodgers in the
National League Division Series
and the St. Louis Cardinals in
the NL Championship Series.
“It was mainly because we
thought we had heard some
whistling,” Menhart said. “Did
we really hear it? Whether you
do or you don’t, just to put those
thoughts in our minds is
dangerous. So we just said, ‘Let’s
nip this now.’ ”
Before getting into how,
exactly, the Nats thwarted any
attempts, it’s helpful to know
from whence they came.
Menhart pitched for three
seasons with three teams in the
mid- to late-1990s. Back then, if
a runner reached second base —
a position from which he could
clearly see the catcher’s signs —
it was the battery’s
responsibility to mix things up.
The catcher would put down a
series of fingers, but the pitcher
would know which one was the
actual pitch for which he was
calling.
“In my day, it was, ‘Second
SVRLUGA FROM D1
BARRY SVRLUGA
Playo≠ foes stealing signs? Nationals planned for it.
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
A report Tuesday said the Houston Astros used a camera in center
field to steal signs in 2017 en route to winning the World Series.BY JESSE DOUGHERTY
scottsdale, ariz. — If there is
one agent who can dictate the
Washington Nationals’ offseason,
it’s Scott Boras.
He represents most of base-
ball’s top free agents, including
Anthony Rendon, Stephen Stras-
burg, Gerrit Cole, Hyun-jin Ryu
and Mike Moustakas. He dis-
cussed them all Wednesday, in an
hour-long meeting with report-
ers, standing beneath a tan um-
brella at Omni Resorts and Spa in
Scottsdale. He forced a lot of
puns. He reviewed the state of
baseball, as he does each Novem-
ber at the general managers’
meetings, and had this to say
about Strasburg and Rendon’s
future in Washington:
“Any player that wins a world
championship enjoys where they
played and what they did,” Boras
started. “And, you know, these
guys were truly... um... I don’t
know, I guess in the oceans of the
playoffs, the Strasburg sank many
contending ships. The idea of it is
that you look at them and say, ‘Are
you comfortable there?’ Of course
they are comfortable there.
“Rendon was a star in the
playoffs, had an MVP-type sea-
son, and those environments are
great for him. Rendon’s built a
throne there. William and Harry
should be worried.”
They are two of the top players
available and were drafted by the
Nationals before becoming stars.
Rendon, as Boras mentioned, is
one of three finalists for the
National League MVP award,
which will be announced Thurs-
day. Strasburg was named World
Series MVP and led the NL with
209 innings pitched. Boras and
Nationals General Manager Mike
Rizzo met for an hour in Scotts-
dale on Tuesday. Rizzo confirmed
that the Nationals met with six
agencies to discuss potential tar-
gets this winter. But conversa-
tions with Boras hold the most
weight, at least for the time being,
at least until both Strasburg and
Rendon reach a destination.
Washington is interested in
bringing back both. The price will
be steep — maybe around a com-
bined $75 million for next season
— but Rizzo and the Nationals
know their value. They wouldn’t
have won a title without them.
And they will lose the offseason,
based on their internal expecta-
tions, if both slip away.
“The idea is that you should
always look at factors that owner-
ship [in Washington] is a place
that players win at,” Boras contin-
ued. “They are committed to win-
ning, and it certainly creates a
viable spot for all of them.”
There is a prevailing percep-
tion that Boras’s clients — partic-
ularly Rendon and Cole — will be
swayed by geography. Cole is
from Southern California and fre-
quently linked to the Los Angeles
Angels and San Diego Padres.
Rendon is from Houston, and the
Texas Rangers are often seen as a
potential landing spot. Even
Strasburg, who grew up in San
Diego, is regularly connected to
the Padres. But Boras countered
that logic by saying these players,
location aside, will go anywhere
to win. It would not be smart for
him to shrink their market down
to specific regions. He also spentmost of Wednesday expressing
disappointment in the teams that
aren’t spending, saying the
league is in “competitive hiberna-
tion.”
Yet the overall point relates to
Strasburg, Rendon and the Na-
tionals’ title. Strasburg men-
tioned during the season that he
wants to be with a franchise
committed to contending. Ren-
don is a bit trickier and not so
direct in that regard, but it’s hard
to imagine him joining a team in
the middle of a rebuild. That’s
why Rizzo doesn’t feel a need to
sell Strasburg or Rendon on the
Nationals. They have been build-
ing relationships for years and
now have won it all together, so
negotiations will begin with fa-
miliarity.
On Tuesday, when he first
spoke with reporters in Scotts-
dale, Rizzo had not yet sat down
with Boras. Doing so later that
day, in a packed two days before
Rizzo departed for his wedding in
Jamaica this weekend, did not tell
him much about how quickly
either player wants to move. Bo-
ras expects the big-name free
agents to sign sooner than they
did last year, when many were
waiting for deals when spring
training began. But that doesn’t
mean he won’t diligently scan a
market that only starts with the
Nationals.“It’s early in the process,” Rizzo
said when asked whether the
meeting gave him any insight
into Strasburg’s and Rendon’s
timelines. “I wouldn’t describe it
as clarity, but I would describe it
as good opening dialogue.”
Rizzo and his team do exten-
sive background research before
signing a player. But they can skip
that with Strasburg and Rendon
and cut right to the chase, making
Rizzo feel he can move quickly if
Boras and the players are willing.
That, of course, requires the num-
bers working for both sides. Boras
smiled Wednesday while saying
that any player would want a
short free agency. But he is out to
make sure Strasburg and Rendon
get paid what they are worth.
Boras began his session by
describing the flaws of evaluation
and predictive analysis. The meat
of his argument was Rendon, who
has outperformed his projected
wins above replacement — an
advanced statistic used to mea-
sure overall value — in each of the
past four seasons. The same goes
for Strasburg, who has long oper-
ated in Max Scherzer’s shadow
and who shifted the narrative
during the Nationals’ champion-
ship run.
Both players like to be comfort-
able, like their set routine and
have thrived in Washington be-
cause it affords privacy that could
disappear in a bigger market.
That should all work in the Na-
tionals’ favor. The World Series
win should, too. But that doesn’t
mean Strasburg or Rendon will
come any cheaper.
[email protected]Boras provides few hints
on Rendon, Strasburg
At GM meetings, agent
stays coy but says clients
are ‘comfortable’ in D.C.“Any player that wins
a world championship
enjoys where they
played and what
they did.”
Agent Scott Boras, on the future of
two of his star free agents: Anthony
Rendon and Stephen Strasburg