There are still four months to go in the season, so trying to break down an end-of-year award at this early point may be a bit of a fools’ errand.
And yet, here I go.
This year’s NL Cy Young race is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic and competitive in the award’s history. After Cristopher Sanchez twirled 50 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, the Phillies’ left-handed ace appears to be in the lead.
He’s currently the league leader in bWAR (4.7), fWAR (3.6), ERA (1.46), innings (86.1), ERA+ (295)
and Fielding Independent Pitching (1.79). But in many of these categories, others are hot on his heels.
There are currently five qualified NL starters with ERAs under 2.50: Sanchez, Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski (1.65), Atlanta’s Chris Sale (2.01), Cincinnati’s Chase Burns (2.05) and Arizona’s Eduardo Rodriguez (2.24). That doesn’t even mention Shohei Ohtani, who doesn’t have enough innings to qualify, but will soon join this list after a few more starts. His ERA is currently 0.74.
Take a look at the full leaderboard below and organize by category.
Sanchez doesn’t lead in everything of course. He’s 4th in K%, trailing Misiorowski, Harrison and Burns. He’s 2nd in BB% and 2nd in K-BB rate (Skenes). His .233 batting average allowed is good, but ranks 29th. His 1.09 WHIP is 16th.
At this stage of the game, any objective observer would have to have Sanchez in the lead, tenuous as it may be. Milwaukee’s Miz is almost as dominant, Ohtani lags behind only because he got a late start to the season, and in normal seasons, Burns, Harrison and Sale would be leading the pack with the numbers they’re sporting.
Oh, and there’s Skenes, who has not been quite as sharp but is the reigning Cy Young Award winner and will have something to say about it before the season’s over.
On my latest Hittin’ Season podcast, I broke down Sanchez’ incredible scoreless innings streak and his current reign as the BSIB.
Best Starter In Baseball.
