Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish finished second in the 2020 National League Cy Young award voting, as Trevor Bauer won it for the first time in his career.

Darvish had an NL-best 3.0 fWAR among starting pitchers, had the best home run rate per nine innings and fewest walks per nine as well. However, as impressive as he was it wasn’t enough to sway voters who overwhelmingly picked Bauer for the award.

NL Cy Young Award Results

Darvish did receive three first-place votes.

An explanation one of the three voters who put Darvish first.

Yu was 2nd to only Bieber in WPA (2.30), FIP (2.23) and fWAR (3.0) in '20. His 6.64 K/BB, 4.7 BB% and 0.59 HR/9 topped Bauer and deGrom. A 1st-place vote for Darvish was fine. https://t.co/44vExSTOBK

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) November 12, 2020

However, there was a surprise in the results, as one voter didn’t even have Darvish in the top-5.

The villain is J.P. Hoornstra, who had Darvish sixth in his Cy Young consideration.

You can read his explanation if you want, but it basically boiled down to looking at only one stat and asking a handful of players who was the hardest pitcher they faced this season.

I left Yu Darvish off my Cy Young ballot. About that: https://t.co/doapM7h4NL

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) November 12, 2020

Darvish Donating part of bonus

Anyway, Darvish had an amazing year and although he didn’t win the Cy Young, by finishing second he now gets an extra $1 million added to his contract for the next three seasons.

Apparently Darvish forgot about that bonus clause in his deal, as he tweeted out on Thursday that he was reminded about the escalator by his agent. Darvish also said he will donate a portion of the bonus money to charity.

そういえばサイヤング受賞で出来高をもらえる契約だったんですが、2〜5位でも出来高があるのを忘れていました笑
昨日代理人に言われてびっくりしました😂
一部寄付させていただきます😄

— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) November 12, 2020

For his 2nd-place finish, Yu Darvish will receive a $1M escalator on his yearly salary in each of the next three seasons. As @faridyu said on his account, he plans to donate a portion of that salary to charity. The amount and where he donates is to be determined.

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) November 12, 2020

Darvish’s Contract

The Cubs signed Darvish to a six-year, $126 million contract heading into the 2018 season. He has three years remaining on the deal and with his second-place finish in the Cy Young race, Darvish is now due a total of $62 million through the 2023 season.

Still, at just over $20 million per year for the next three seasons, this looks like a pretty good deal for the Cubs, who were bashed relentlessly over the signing for a year and a half.