Favorites to Win the AL Cy Young Award
Jacob deGrom (+550)
Gerrit Cole (+650)
Alek Manoah (+800)
Dylan Cease (+900)
Shane Bieber (+950)
When healthy, Jacob deGrom is one of the best pitchers in baseball. The two-time Cy Young Award winner has a career 2.52 ERA but has yet to eclipse 100 innings pitched in the last two seasons. His whole resume screams MLB Hall of Fame pitcher, but if he wants to win another Cy Young, he needs to be on the field.
It’s crazy to think Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has never won the Cy Young Award, yet he is a five-time all-star with an ERA title. He is 71-29 with a 3.00 ERA since moving over to the AL in 2018 and should remain a favorite to win the Cy Young Award for years to come.
Alek Monoah built on a solid rookie year by posting a 16-7 record with a 2.24 ERA last season for the Blue Jays. The former top prospect is a budding superstar waiting to take his game to the next level.
Unlike Monoah, Dylan Cease had a tough time adjusting to MLB hitting before exploding onto the scene last year. Nevertheless, he punched out 227 batters in 184 innings while owning an excellent 2.20 ERA.
Shane Biever had a fantastic season last year, posting a 2.88 ERA over 200 innings, but the former AL Cy Young Award winner saw a significant drop off in his K/9 (12.5 to 8.9). Strikeouts usually separate contenders in a tight Cy Young race, and he will need to get back to his usual ways if he wants to take home the award for the second time in his career.
Some of the Mid-tier Guys
Carlos Rodon (+1000)
Shohei Ohtani (+1200)
Shane McClanahan (+1200)
Framber Valdez (+1500)
Kevin Gausman (+1600)
Carlos Rodon will start the season on the IL, but the lefty has finished in the top six of Cy Young voting the last two seasons despite never throwing more than 178 innings.
Ohtani is low on this list because the Angeles elects to go with a six-man rotation to give their ace more time between starts as he hits nukes as the team’s DH. His strikeout rate and ERA are epic, but the question will always be, can he throw enough innings?
Shane McClanahan is one of the best young lefties in the game, and if he can exceed the 166 innings he threw last season while maintaining a sub-three ERA, he will again emerge as an AL Cy Young candidate. Meanwhile, Framber Valdez (Astros) and Kevin Gausman (Blue Jays) may not be the aces for their playoff-caliber teams. Still, they could easily find themselves in the AL Cy Young conversation for a second consecutive year.
Longshots
Christian Javier (+1800)
Tyler Anderson (+5000)
Luis Severino (+6000)
Jeffrey Springs (+9000)
The ace in the hole for the Astros during their 2022 World Series title run, Christian Javier, will move from super efficient swingman to full-time starter in 2023. Tyler Anderson was excellent for the Dodgers last season, going 15-5 with a 2.57 ERA in 28 starts. However, his odds seem too high for someone who did well last year.
Luis Severino has made just 22 starts since finishing ninth in Cy Young voting in 2018, but he is healthy heading into a new season for the first time in what feels like forever. The Tampa Bay Rays work wonders when it comes to starting pitching, so it’s reasonable to think Jeffrey Springs will improve on his 2.46 ERA from 2022.
