In 2022, Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara put together an incredible season to run away with the National League Cy Young Award. This year’s race is much closer, as it features a crop of talented pitchers with above-average resumes that don’t necessarily stand out from the pack. The Padres’ Blake Snell has the best ERA (2.65) but has paired it with a whopping 78 walks. Logan Webb has the lowest ERA of any pitcher who’s thrown a complete game (3.36), but he’s allowed 18 home runs.
With September right around the corner, this is the make-or-break time for pitchers to string together a series of good starts in the hopes of improving their Cy Young resume. So, just like we did right after the trade deadline, let’s take a look at how the past few weeks and have impacted the NL Cy Young race over at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Updated NL Cy Young odds as of Tuesday, August 22
Zac Gallen +175 Blake Snell +210 Spencer Strider +400
Logan Webb +650 Justin Steele +900 Corbin Burnes +2000
Zack Wheeler +4000 Clayton Kershaw+7500 Kodai Senga +10000
Merrill Kelly +10000 Marcus Stroman +1000 Jesus Luzardo +10000
NL Cy Young race: Takeaways and best bets
Zac Gallen, D-Backs (+175)
A season after finishing fifth in the NL Cy Young voting, Gallen’s the favorite to win this year’s Cy Young thanks to being the most consistent pitcher amongst the group. He leads the NL in WHIP (1.049), and has gone at least six innings in 13 of his last 15 starts. He hasn’t really had a true gem yet this season (he’s only had one scoreless outing since May), but also hasn’t seen his ERA rise above 3.50 since April. If he keeps going six innings and allowing two or fewer runs, then he should finish the season with a Cy Young-worthy resume in a bit of a muddled group.
Logan Webb, Giants (+750)
A true workhorse, Webb leads all of baseball with 169 innings on the season and has thrown a shutout already this season. Webb’s gone at least seven innings in five of his last seven starts, will likely end up leading the NL in innings and could end up clearing the 200 inning plateau — an increasingly rare achievement. He has a 2.63 ERA in August, and is the ace on a Giants team that’s surprisingly in the thick of the NL Wild Card race. The Giants rotation is down to Webb, rookie Kyle Harrison, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood, which means that manager Gabe Kapler will need plenty of length out of Webb in his starts to save a bullpen that will likely be taxed down the stretch run. That could lead to plenty of strong, deep outings for Webb.
