Félix Hernández claimed last Cy Young Award by a Latino on this day
It seems almost impossible to fathom that the King’s Court won’t exist next season in Seattle, where Felix Hernandez has become one of the most beloved athletes of this millennium.
Hernandez may belong on the Mount Rushmore of Seattle Mariners players, up there with Hall of Famers Ken Griffey, Jr., Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson. Alex Rodriguez and Hernandez would be the candidates for the fourth spot, but the good folks of Seattle would likely rather have Hernandez because he played with the team as long as the Mariners would have him and he doesn’t carry any of Rodriguez’s baggage.
Whatever the case, we take time to celebrate Hernandez today on the ninth anniversary of his winning his first and only Cy Young Award from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
On this day in 2010, Hernandez easily cruised to the Cy Young Award, garnering 21 of the 28 first-place votes. David Price garnered four votes, and David Price earned the other three.
The pride of Valencia, Venezuela, appeared destined to pick up a few more Cy Young Awards. He was only 24 when he won his first Cy Young Award although he had already pitched six seasons.
Much like the legendary Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who won the NL Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Award in 1981, Hernandez carried a heavy workload early in his career and stumbled toward the end.
He earned his six All-Star berths in the span of seven seasons from 2009 through 2015, missing the Midsummer Classic only during his Cy Young season.
Still, he finished 2010 with a 13-12 record, 2.27 ERA and 232 strikeouts while leading the majors with a career-high 249 ⅔ innings over 34 starts. The 232 strikeouts were the most of his career at that point. He surpassed that mark only once in his career, when he struck out 248 in 2014.
No Latino has won a Cy Young Award since Hernandez nine years ago today. Heck, it’s been 22 years since Pedro Martinez became the last Latino to win the Cy Young Award in the National League in 1997.
Hernandez is only 33 years old, yet he has already pitched 15 seasons in the majors, compiling a 169-139 record with a 3.42 ERA over 419 games and 2,729 ⅔ innings.
The King’s Court section at Seattle gave him a rousing sendoff in his final start of the season this September, making it clear that everybody thought this would be his last home start in a Mariners uniform.
Since posting an impressive 2.14 ERA in 2014 during his fifth All-Star season, Hernandez’s ERA has progressively gotten worse while ballooning terribly over the last three seasons from 4.36 in 2017 to 5.55 in 2018 and 6.40 in 2019.
Nonetheless, his career will always be remembered fondly in Seattle in part because he was loyal to the Mariners. He never bothered to leave.
He never bothered to even take the proverbial free-agent hammer. On and off the field, he devoted himself to the Seattle community.
He has represented Venezuela and the Latino community well in the majors, and we take time out to celebrate his Cy Young Award and career.
Feature Image: Jean Fruth
Inset Images: Jean Fruth
