AL Cy Young Race: Who is Corey Kluber’s Competition to Take Home the Award?

The race for the American League Cy Young award is on and it’s a crowded field. Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians has to be considered a frontrunner, but who else is standing shoulder to shoulder with him?

With fewer than 20 games remaining in the regular season, the American League Cy Young award race is still wide open. There is a crowded field of deserving candidates, yet seemingly no one has really pushed to the front of the pack.

Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber is among the collection of arms having quality seasons on the mound, and certainly must be considered one of the favorites to win the award. Kluber’s performance this year, particularly since the all-star break, has been consistently dominant, and is reminiscent of the show he put on when he won the Cy Young in 2014.

According to Baseball Reference, the 30-year old right-hander is at or near the top of nearly every significant statistical category for pitchers not only in the AL, but in all of Major League Baseball. Thus far in 2016, Kluber is 16-9 with a 3.05 earned run average in 29 games started covering 197.2 innings, which generally tends to carry weight with Cy voters in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and on its face looks impressive.

But to understand his true dominance, we must look beyond the shiny won-loss record and relatively tiny ERA. Kluber leads American League pitchers in bWAR, ERA+, FIP, adjusted pitching runs, adjusted pitching wins, base-out runs saved, and situational wins saved, all advanced metrics that attempt to paint a more accurate portrait of a pitcher’s performance independent from the defense behind him and the offense going to bat for him.

In that sense, a strong argument could be made that Kluber has been the best, most valuable pitcher in the AL. He also places in the top ten in the league in more mainstream numbers such as wins, ERA, WHIP, innings pitched, strikeouts, strikeouts per nine innings, strikeout-to-walk ratio, shutouts, and complete games, which should help his cause with the BBWAA.

Kluber, however, is not the only one putting together a strong Cy Young resume in 2016, and while he may be one of the favorites, putting money down on him walking away with the award doesn’t seem a prudent bet.

Let’s take a look at the competition around the American League, and see who may be the biggest obstacle to a second #CyKluber in three years.

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