The American League Cy Young Award has been all but wrapped up as it seems to be decided. However, with about six weeks remaining in the regular season, there can be a chance for someone to go and take it away from the frontrunner. Let’s take a deeper dive into the top three candidates and discuss the chances of each winning the award.
Gerrit Cole (-380)
Gerrit Cole has been one of the only bright spots for this New York Yankees team as they are trying to fight to be above .500 right now. He is currently 10-3 with a 2.76 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. He has been striking people out as well with 166 strikeouts in 156.1 innings of work. He leads the league in innings pitched and batters faced. He has been close as a top-nine Cy Young Award player every season he has been in the American League.
He is the overwhelming favorite this year and should win. The odds are only getting higher as he continues to limit the long ball. His win total should be higher but the offense has struggled throughout the season and either did not score enough or the bullpen blew the game.
Kevin Kausman (+450)
Kevin Gausman has been doing very well for the Toronto Blue Jays this season as he is 9-7 with a 3.24 ERA and 144.1 innings. He leads the league with 187 strikeouts and 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings thus far. Similar to Cole, the Blue Jays are not winning many of his starts as Toronto is 12-12 so far this season when he is on the mound.
Gausman needs to figure things out early as he has a 6.00 ERA in the first inning. If he can correct that down the stretch, he will be able to close the gap a bit.
Framber Valdez (+950)
Framber Valdez has been doing well himself as he is currently 9-8 with a 3.31 ERA over the course of 149.2 innings of work. He is leading the sport with two complete game shutouts. He also has been doing well in terms of control with 36 walks and 148 strikeouts.
Valdez has struggled on the road so far as he is 5-3 with a 4.43 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP in 65 innings of work. He has had a decent amount of run short as the Astros average 4.24 runs per game so far. It seems too late for him to get into legitimate conversation for the AL Cy Young Award this season but he is the only one here that is practically guaranteed a playoff spot right now.
