Clayton Kershaw Wins 2014 NL MVP: Voting Results, Comments and Reaction

Coming off another scintillating regular season, Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, 26, has been named the 2014 National League Most Valuable Player.

On Wednesday, he won the National League Cy Young Award for the third time in his career after leading the majors in wins and ERA. He earned all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America (Johnny Cueto finished second, Adam Wainwright third). Cleveland's Corey Kluber earned top honors in the American League.

Also in the American League, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels won the MVP award in a unanimous vote Thursday, defeating Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians outfielder Michael Brantley.

Kershaw got the majority of first-place votes to finish ahead of the Miami Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton and Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen. Bleacher Report's Scott Miller broke down the voting:

After winning the prestigious award, Kershaw briefly spoke with MLB Network:

McCutchen offered his congrats to Kershaw on Facebook, via the NBC Sports Network account: 

Kershaw, who signed a seven-year, $215 million deal in January 2014, becomes the first pitcher since Detroit's Justin Verlander in 2011 to win an MVP award. He's the first National League pitcher to win the honor since Bob Gibson in 1968. The left-hander finished the 2014 season with a 21-3 record, posting a 1.77 ERA, 239 strikeouts, 31 walks and a 0.857 WHIP in 198.1 innings. 

Former Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson talked about Kershaw's MVP candidacy in August with Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com:

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The thing about Kershaw—and I know you're probably trying to keep it to this year—it's just so impressive what he does year after year after year. He's been very consistent. Beyond how we face him, we watch him the way he works every day, just watch him grow.

He's very talented, and you've got to give him credit for continuing to get better with what he's got. He has the will and the determination to not stop right at where he's at. I think that's what separates him.

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On Sept. 16, Anthony Castrovince of Sports on Earth ranked Kershaw with the 10 previous pitchers to win an MVP award, putting his 2014 performance third behind Bob Gibson in '68 and Sandy Koufax in 1963:

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The first is that both his ERA and his FIP are under 2.00. As Joe Posnanski recently pointed out, this has only happened four other times since the Deadball era (only two of those instances resulted in an MVP, and they're both covered below). That's a great way of illustrating just how good Kershaw has been at controlling what little he can control.

The other is that Kershaw's adjusted ERA+ of 211, even at this time of pitching prominence, is simply absurd. Only 10 times post-Deadball has a pitcher had a mark that high.

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Remarkably, Kershaw missed all of April with a back injury. That injury kept him under 200 innings for the first time since 2009, though he still managed to set career marks in wins, WHIP and ERA.

Kershaw's Dodgers won the NL West for the second year in a row, finishing 94-68 (a two-game improvement from 2013). However, they were not able to advance out of the first round, falling 3-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series. Kershaw posted a 7.82 ERA over 12.2 innings versus St. Louis.

Only in his mid-20s, Kershaw is just beginning to hit his prime, a scary thought for the rest of the National League. There's no question he enters the 2015 season as the leading contender to be the best pitcher in baseball yet again.