MLB Awards Watch: Top 5 NL Cy Young candidates thru April

5. James Shields – 5 GS, 2-0, 2.90 ERA, 41 K

Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

A move over to an NL roster and a rather pitcher friendly home ballpark appears to have done wonders to James Shields‘ game and confidence. For some reason, his career K/9 of 7.7 is up to 11.9 in 2015 and he ranks second behind only Kershaw in NL strikeouts.

Shields has factored into Cy voting a few times in the past, but has never been inside the top 10 of a ballot. Typically not outstanding, but rather a consistently strong workhorse, at 33 he appears to be taking a significant step forward so far this season.

The San Diego Padres already had a strong rotation headlined by Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross before they decided to make Shields a late offseason offer which he accepted and signed on February 11. He got $75 million over four seasons. Not quite Scherzer or Jon Lester money, but right now Shields looks every bit like the ace of the Padres and is certainly pitching better than Lester is (0-2, 6.23).

It remains to be seen if the hefty workload from his past will catch up with Shields this season or in future ones while under contract with the Padres. But while the future remains a question mark, the present is no sweat for Shields right now.

He is 5-for-5 in quality starts and recently dropped his ERA from 3.24 to where it sits currently after dominating the first place Houston Astros. In that outing he pitched six innings of six hit, one earned run ball, taking full advantage of the young Astros’ propensity to swing and miss by K’ing 12.

Next: Matt Harvey