There’s plenty of experience to go around in the 2019 Cy Young race.
Amid home-run surges and record strikeout rates, openers and bullpen days, the starter’s role is changing. Those who can adapt, however, remain invaluable to their teams.
Which is why this year’s Cy Young finalists list includes some marquee starters.
As teammates Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander go head to head with former teammate Charlie Morton in the American League, Jacob deGrom will try to defend his 2018 award against veteran Hyun-Jin Ryu and World Series hero Max Scherzer in the NL.
Here’s a closer look at this year’s Cy Young award finalists…
AL Cy Young candidates
Gerrit Cole – Houston Astros
33 GS | 212.1 IP | 2.50 ERA | 326 K | 0.895 WHIP | 6.8 WAR | 20-5
This is how a free-agent starter earns a lucrative contract.
Probably the biggest available name this off-season, Cole was inevitable and unstoppable all year. The 29-year-old led the American League in strikeouts and earned the ERA title while pitching north of 200 innings.
Cole and Verlander — we’ll get to him in a second — formed one of the best rotation one-two punches in a season that saw the Astros fall just short of a second World Series win in three years.
This would be Cole’s first Cy Young award, and it would add some more excitement (and dollars, probably) to the off-season if he can win.
Charlie Morton – Tampa Bay Rays
33 GS | 194.2 IP | 3.05 ERA | 240 K | 1.084 WHIP | 5.0 WAR | 16-6
Blake Snell may not be in the race after battling injuries this season, but the Rays still have a well-deserving representative.
Morton, who signed the biggest free-agent contract in Rays franchise history, is notoriously known for mimicking Roy Halladay’s delivery and pitching arsenal. If he adds his first career Cy Young, the 35-year-old will have one more thing in common with his idol.
In addition to his reliable four-seam fastball and sinker, Morton successfully upped the usage of his curveball this season, and no starter in baseball allowed fewer home runs per nine innings (0.694).
Justin Verlander – Houston Astros
34 GS | 223.0 IP | 2.58 ERA | 300 K | 0.803 WHIP | 7.8 WAR | 21-6
Death, taxes, Verlander on the Cy Young voting list.
The Astros ace has received votes in the past four seasons, and in nine of his 15 in the league — including a win, back in 2011 with the Detroit Tigers, when he was also crowned AL MVP. Verlander and Cole have been in a silent, friendly battle for the award all season, and there’s still no clear favourite between the two.
The 36-year-old led all of baseball in innings pitched and WHIP, and was right behind Cole in strikeouts per inning.
NL Cy Young candidates
Jacob deGrom – New York Mets
32 GS | 204.0 IP | 2.43 ERA | 255 K | 0.971 WHIP | 7.9 WAR | 11-8
The nearly unanimous 2018 Cy Young winner seems to be the frontrunner for a second-straight award in the NL. But it took deGrom some time to pull ahead this season.
After two good starts to kick off the year, deGrom faltered through April, and couldn’t get his ERA back to below 3.00 until late July. For most of the season, the NL Cy Young race looked like a Scherzer-Ryu contest, and the fact that deGrom turned a 4.85 ERA into 2.43, a league lead in strikeouts and a second-consecutive nomination should count in his favour.
Max Scherzer – Washington Nationals
27 GS | 172.1 IP | 2.92 ERA | 243 K | 1.027 WHIP | 5.8 WAR | 11-7
“With Max, we’ve come to expect the unexpected,” Nationals closer Sean Doolittle said after the team’s World Series win.
Scherzer’s first career World Series win was as iconic as his personality. The three-time Cy Young winner led Washington from a 19-31 start and the NL East’s basement to a seven-game thriller against the Astros, while battling neck stiffness to pitch five innings in Game 7.
That’s the grind the baseball world has come to expect from Mad Max.
Hyun-Jin Ryu – Los Angeles Dodgers
29 GS | 182.2 IP | 2.32 ERA | 163 K | 1.007 WHIP | 5.3 WAR | 14-5
Had the MLB regular season ended two months early, Ryu would have been instantly crowned Cy Young winner.
In his sixth year with the Dodgers, the Korean lefty carried a 1.53 ERA through July 31, including a complete-game shutout against the Atlanta Braves. Ryu isn’t a big strikeout pitcher, but he more than makes up for it with his command, allowing a league-best 24 bases on balls in 2019.
But after a stint in the IL due to a neck injury in the beginning of August, Ryu’s production dropped and suddenly he wasn’t the clear favourite anymore.
When a drop in production means a 2.32 season ERA, however, you should definitely be in the Cy Young conversation.
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