The 2023 Major League Baseball season is heading into the home stretch. Who will take home the hardware for the National League Cy Young Award, given annually to the best pitcher in the league? Here are the five top contenders in inverse order. (All statistics through Monday).
5. Josh Hader | San Diego Padres, LHP
KEY STAT: 0.79 ERA over 48 appearances
Only nine relief pitchers have earned a Cy Young Award, the last being Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003. Hader is a long shot for the award, but the Baseball Writers’ Association of America members who vote for the award should give him some consideration. According to Stathead from Baseball Reference, Hader holds the relief pitcher record for the lowest ERA in National League history (minimum 48 games pitched).
4. Blake Snell | San Diego Padres, LHP
KEY STATS: 2.60 ERA, best among major league starters; 193 Ks, second in league.
He already has an American League Cy Young Award to his name thanks to a 21-5 campaign for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018. If he were to win another award this season, Snell would join Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer as the only pitchers to win an American and National League Cy Young Award. Perry, Martinez, Halladay and Johnson are in the Hall of Fame. Not bad company to have.