Awards Season: The Cy Youngs

All Justin Verlander did in 2022 was come back from Tommy John surgery...at age 39...having thrown a grand total of six innings in the past two years...and have arguably the best season of his Hall of Fame career.  I'd even venture to say it was better than his 2011 season, when he won both the Cy Young and MVP!  Which is why there's no reason to even debate it.  Verlander will win his third career Cy Young this season, and his second since joining the Astros.

I'd actually argue that it could've been an Astros 1-2.  We know that it wasn't since Framber Valdez isn't a finalist.  But maybe he should've been.  After all, Valdez led the AL in innings pitched (201.1) and complete games (3), was second in wins (17), and struck out 194.

Instead, the other two finalists are Dylan Cease of the White Sox and Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays.  I'd say Cease has the better case and probably finished second behind Verlander.  He allowed one run or fewer 23 times and finished with an ERA of 2.20.  Cease was also second in the AL with 227 strikeouts and held opponents to a .190 batting average.  The White Sox might've underachieved this season, but it wasn't Cease's fault.

Manoah, meanwhile, emerged as the Blue Jays' ace.  His numbers are actually comparable to Cease's.  A 16-7 record and 2.24 ERA with 180 strikeouts in 196.2 innings.  And Manhoah's WHIP was below 1.00.  I actually wouldn't be surprised if he got some MVP votes, too.  Because, with all the injuries on Toronto's pitching staff, Manoah proved to be a consistent presence on the mound who helped them secure home field advantage in the Wild Card Series.

Cleveland won the AL Central in large part because of its excellent starting rotation.  But Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase had just as big a role in their success.  When he came in from the bullpen, it was essentially game over.  He pitched in nearly half of the Guardians' games and saved 42 of them.

It wouldn't surprise me if Shohei Ohtani got Cy Young votes.  He's not gonna join Verlander and Clayton Kershaw in the MVP/Cy Young club this season, but you could definitely make an argument for him to receive fourth- or fifth-place Cy Young votes.  He was even better on the mound this season, and he threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.  Ohtani was fourth in ERA and third in strikeouts.  We'll talk about him some more tomorrow.

For Cy Young, we go five deep, and I think it's pretty obvious who should win it.  I'd actually be surprised if it isn't unanimous for Verlander.  The rest of my top five is Cease, Valdez, Manoah and Clase.  But, if you wanted to swap Clase for Ohtani, that would be totally fine with me.

Over in the National League, it's a little more wide open.  But I think there's still a clear favorite.  Playing in Miami, he wasn't as heralded as he maybe should've been, but Sandy Alcantara was, in my opinion, the best pitcher in the National League this season by a wide margin.  And I would love to see him be rewarded with the Cy Young.

Yes, I realize it sounds like I'm doing a complete 180 here after I was so vehemently opposed to Felix Rodriguez winning over David Price in 2010 and Jacob deGrom over Max Scherzer in 2018.  But the difference is that in those two years, it was actually neck-and-neck, so the fact that one pitched in irrelevant games for a bad team and the other pitched in important games for a contender mattered.  This year, though, it's not that close.  Alcantara was far and away the best pitcher in the National League this season.

The Dodgers won 111 games, so there were plenty of wins available for their pitchers to get.  Julio Urias had 17 of them and ended up as the ace of a rotation that also included Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler.  But Kershaw and Buehler both missed significant time in the second half due to injuries.  All Urias did in their absence was go 11-2 with a 1.26 ERA over his last 14 starts.  Oh yeah, and he led the National League in ERA, too.

Atlanta also had an abundance of starting pitching, headlined by Max Fried.  He was a big part of the Braves' late-season run to the division title and ended up third in NL with a 2.48 ERA.  Still, I'd place Fried far behind both Alcantara and Urias in the voting.  I'm not even sure I'd place him in the top three.

Who would I put in the top three ahead of him?  Well, Mets closer Edwin Diaz for one.  Yeah, they had Scherzer and deGrom, but it was the trumpets blaring when the bullpen door swung open after the eighth inning that really got Mets fans fired up.  They made it a priority to re-sign Diaz last offseason, and you can understand why.  He was excellent this season!  Diaz had 118 strikeouts in 62 innings!  That's insane!

Last year's surprise NL Cy Young winner was the Brewers' Corbin Burnes.  He followed it up by striking out 243 in 202 innings while going 12-8 with a 2.94 ERA this season.  Carlos Rodon was 14-8 with 237 strikeouts for the Giants, while Tony Gonsolin's 16-1 record and 2.14 ERA can't be ignored (even if he did only throw 130.1 innings).  Tyler Anderson makes it three Dodgers worthy of being in the discussion.

While I'm curious to see how the down-ballot voting ended up, 1 and 2 are pretty clear to me.  Alcantara is the winner, with Urias the runner-up.  As for the rest of my hypothetical NL Cy Young ballot, it's Diaz 3, Burnes 4, Fried 5.