If you thought the Electoral College was confusing, consider the 2016 American League Cy Young Award vote. After five routine elections, for the rookies of the year, the managers of the year and the National League Cy Young Award, things got really, really weird Wednesday night.

Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers received 14 of 30 first-place votes from the baseball writers. Rick Porcello of the Boston Red Sox received eight first-place votes. And your winner is … Porcello?

Yes, for real.

“That’s the weird thing about these things — the voting,” the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer, the National League winner, said from a boat in the British Virgin Islands while on a conference call with reporters. “You never know how it’s going to actually shake out and how the writers actually view everybody’s season.”

National League voters overwhelmingly chose Scherzer, who had a 2.96 E.R.A. and led his league in wins (20), innings (228 ⅓), strikeouts (284), walks plus hits per inning pitched (0.968) and strikeouts per walk (5.07). Scherzer, who became the sixth pitcher to have won a Cy Young in both leagues, collected 25 of 30 first-place votes, with the Chicago Cubs’ Jon Lester the runner-up.