MLB Awards Watch: Top 5 NL Cy Young candidates through May
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Over in the American League, Houston’s Dallas Keuchel picked up back-to-back awards for the pitcher of the month in April and May. In the National League, April’s winner is a fresh faced up and comer in Major League Baseball while last months winner is a more familiar face. For our NL list through the month of April, click here.
Clayton Kershaw cleaned up in the awards department last season, winning both a Cy Young and MVP trophy. A World Series title still evades the best pitcher on planet earth, though. While the last time a team (the Giants) had a league MVP (Buster Posey) on their roster and won a World Series in the same season was only 2012, it was 2001 when Randy Johnson won pitching’s Holy Grail and a World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Before that, it was 1998 when Roger Clemens accomplished the same feat.
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There’s a handful of strong pitcher’s playing on NL contenders in the early days of June. Kershaw is one of them, but he’s not a top candidate yet. Even though a slow start has been his story so far this season, there is still plenty of time for him to claw his way back into the conversation.
Honorable mentions go to Kershaw, as well as James Shields (7-0, 3.58), A.J. Burnett (6-1, 2.20) and Jacob deGrom (6-4, 2.41). Shields is yet to lose and leads the NL in punch outs, the 38-year-old Burnett is pitching like he’s 28 and the sophomore deGrom is definitely not experiencing a slump.
It’s also worth noting, that while the Philadelphia Phillies won’t be vying for postseason glory this year, they have two pitchers in the top 10 for WAR at the position. It’s possible that Aaron Harang (4-5, 2.02, 2.8 WAR) and Cole Hamels (5-4, 2.88, 2.5 WAR) won’t be in a Phillies uniform come August, so a move to a more successful ball club could catapult either of them into the top five if they continue doing what they’re doing.
Next: No. 5