For the second straight year, Max Scherzer is the Cy Young winner in the National League, his third win overall. Corey Kluber took home the honor in the American League, his second Cy Young.
All Scherzer did in 2017 was improve his ERA, FIP, WAR, and strikeout rate from his dominant 2016 season, so, yeah, he was deserving. At least the Cubs managed to knock him around in Game Five of the NLDS, thanks in large part to one of the strangest innings ever.
There were certainly debates about the merits of a seven-year, $210 million contract for Scherzer back in January of 2015, after his agent (Scott Boras) had remained steadfast about the rightness of such a monster deal, and waited out the market. And it could still turn into an anchor in the later years, but you can’t argue that the Nationals haven’t already received tremendous value. Three dominant seasons later, the Nationals have already netted 18.0 WAR from Scherzer, which is worth around $150 to $180 million, depending on your preferred $/WAR value. He needs to provide very little over the remaining four years of his contract for the signing to have been worth it.
Although I suppose the Nationals would have preferred to have a few more playoff wins in these three years.