MLB Awards: Top 5 AL Cy Young candidates through June

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

While Felix Hernandez has been pretty stout again in 2015 and still has his legions of admirers that will be cheering him to potentially his American League leading 11th win when the Mariners face the Athletics on America’s birthday, June was not kind to the King.

Hernandez entered the month with an ERA of 2.63 and will start July being north of 3.00. He went 2-3 in June, which included the shortest outing of his career on June 12 versus the Astros when he recorded only a single out while allowing two home runs and eight earned runs.

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Felix’s 5.51 ERA was the second worst of any starter in the Mariners’ rotation last month ahead of only Roenis Elias‘ 6.11. If he stays healthy, a strong second half could propel Hernandez back into contention for his second Cy Young.

As it stands now, June was a setback and overall, he just has not been as dominant as he was in 2014. Not only was there the shortest career outing, but Hernandez has not pitched a double digit strikeout game since April 18. At this time last year, he had four starts with 10-plus punch outs and 37 more in total.

First providing May’s edition as a reference, here are the top five AL Cy Young contenders through the first three months of the MLB season.

Next: Number 5