MLB Awards Watch: Chris Sale, Max Scherzer lead Cy Young races

2. Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians

The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner is in the midst of his best season since winning the honor three years ago. In 17 starts, Corey Kluber is 8-3 with a 2.90 ERA and 2.46 FIP, with 161 strikeouts and just 27 walks in 114.2 innings. Kluber currently ranks third in the American League in ERA among qualified starters, behind only Chris Sale and James Paxton, and ranks third in the major leagues – trailing the same pair – in FIP. He also ranks third with 4.1 fWAR.

In many ways, Kluber is on pace for his best career season. The 31-year-old right-hander has a career-best 0.994 WHIP (which ranks second in the AL and fourth in the majors) thanks to a solid 6.0 percent walk rate and holding opponents to a career low .208 batting average and 6.8 hits per nine innings.

Also, his strikeout numbers are on the rise. Prior to this season, the best strikeout rate Kluber produced was 28.3 percent in 2014, when he also posted 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings. This year, he’s struck out 35.8 percent of the hitters he’s faced and has piled up 12.6 K/9. Only Sale and Max Scherzer have a higher strikeout rate among qualified starters this season. Kluber has a 29.8 percent K-BB%, which is the second best in baseball behind Sale.

In other advanced stats, Kluber leads the big leagues in xFIP- (55) and xFIP (2.42), ranks second in SIERA (2.64), third in FIP- (56), and seventh in ERA- (65). Overall, a very solid performance.