part due to his newly established record. Beyond leading all other major league starters in strikeout-to-walk ratio by over 4 points (as well posting as a personal best K/9 rate of 7.98), Hughes' BB/9 rate of 0.687 was the third-lowest mark ever posted by a starting pitcher in the Modern Era (behind Saberhagen and Carlos Silva). Furthermore, given that Hughes only gave up as many home runs (16) as he did walks during the 2014 season (thus posting an identical mark of 0.687 home runs per 9 innings, also a career-low), his 2.65 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) (a defense independent pitching statistic measuring a pitchers effectiveness to limit walks, homers and hits and accumulate strikeouts) showed off his incredible finesse (Hughes allowed no more than one walk in 30 of his 32 starts) and command of the strike zone (out of 3,046 pitches thrown, 2,224 of them (73.0%) landed in the strike zone, the best rate among all major league pitchers by a landslide) throughout the season. Hughes received both of the Twins most prestigious player awards (the Joseph W. Haynes Pitcher of the Year Award and the Calvin R. Griffith MVP Award) for his outstanding performance throughout the season on an otherwise disappointing Twins team, who finished 22 games under .500 and last in the AL Central. He also finished seventh in the voting for the American League Cy Young Award behind David Price, Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, Chris Sale, Félix Hernández and winner Corey Kluber, receiving one fourth-place vote and four fifth-place votes for a total of six points. It marked the highest Cy Young voting finish for a Twins pitcher since Johan Santana won the award unanimously in 2006. On December 22, 2014, Hughes and the Twins agreed on a three-year extension worth $42 million. 2015 Looking to build on the success of his 2014 season, Hughes went into the 2015 season as the Twins ace. He started 25 times while appearing two times out of the bullpen. Despite going 11–9, his ERA was 4.40 and allowed 29 home runs in innings, the most across the majors. 2016 On June 9, 2016, Hughes was struck in the left knee off a line drive from J. T. Realmuto and left the game. The next day, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to left knee contusion. On June 11, it was revealed that there was a