Cleveland Indians: Corey Kluber a favorite to win another Cy Young

Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber is fresh off his second Cy Young Award and remains a favorite to win a third in 2018.

Corey Kluber went from an afterthought to one of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball in a span of just a few years.

Kluber made his Cleveland Indians debut back in 2011, appearing in just three games. But things took a turn for the legendary when Kluber won the Cy Young Award in 2014. Then he won it again in 2017 to put his name down among some of the greatest to ever wear the uniform.

The star enters 2018 as the ace of the staff once again, although Carlos Carrasco may stake a claim to be “ace 1b.”

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com recently wrote an article predicting likely award winners from every MLB team. The Indians arguably have three potential names in Kluber, Francisco Lindor, and Jose Ramirez, but Castrovince kept it simple and went with Kluber.

It is hard to argue with that choice because Kluber is a favorite to win the Cy Young every year from now until he calls it quits. He has a career 3.13 ERA, averages 247 strikeouts a season, and has pitched at least 200 innings in every season since 2014.

Along with Kluber, Carrasco may also be in Cy Young contention after finishing fourth in the voting a year ago. Maybe Trevor Bauer will even put his name in the running. He certainly has gotten better with each passing year.

As for other awards, Lindor and Ramirez will once again be early favorites for AL MVP. That is something that will remain true for a long time, as both could end up battling each other for the honor over the next decade. Having Mike Trout in the same league adds some stiff competition, but the two young phenoms only seem to be getting better as time goes on. Just wait until they actually hit the peak of their primes. Watch out, every pitcher in professional baseball.

Next: Top 10 wins from 2017

Talking awards at this point in the year is simply speculation, but that’s why it is so fun. We can all sit here and say the team is going to do great things and we can’t be wrong. At least not yet.