Major League Baseball announced the 2015 Cy Young winners tonight. Chicago’s Jake Arrieta topped the L.A. Dodgers duo of Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in the NL, while Houston’s Dallas Keuchel handily beat out Toronto’s David Price in the AL. In an interesting little bit of trivia, the same scout once drafted both Arrieta and Keuchel.
Neither Arrieta nor Keuchel were high-round, can’t miss prospects. Milwaukee drafted Arrieta in the 26th round of the 2005 draft, after his freshman season at Weatherford Junior College. Instead of signing he opted to transfer to TCU, and after two solid years Baltimore selected him in the fifth round of the 2007 draft.
Keuchel’s signing was much more straightforward. Houston drafted him in the seventh round of the 2009 draft, and he immediately signed and began playing Single-A ball for the club. And according to Keith Law, Stevenson was also responsible for signing current Rangers stud Yovani Gallardo.
Of course, while identifying and drafting three top of the rotation starters is impressive, not every player Stevenson drafted became a star. Like this guy, who never advanced beyond Double-A ball:
Still, it’s gotta feel pretty good to be Jim Stevenson today.
Photos via Getty
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