Seattle Mariners – James Paxton wins A.L. Cy Young
About the only weapon missing from the arsenal of James Paxton is health. He’s never made more than 24 starts in a season(which came last year) but when he’s pitching, he’s one of the more dominant starters in baseball. Yes, both Corey Kluber of the Indians and Chris Sale of the Red Sox will be favored for the award. Kluber himself will be the defending winner headed into 2017. It’s time for a new face to wear the crown in 2018.
Last season, Paxton had an ERA under 3.00, a WHIP of 1.10, and a rate of 10.32 strikeouts per nine innings. He would need to slightly improve on these numbers to match what Kluber put up last year to take home the award. There’s no reason to think Paxton can’t be even better this year as this will only be his third season starting 20 games or more for the Mariners. Given the talent he has shown thus far, it’s not hard to imagine him taking a leap forward in 2018.
The Mariners are going to need a Cy Young-worthy performance nearly every time out from Paxton to help mitigate the rest of their rotation. Felix Hernandez is the number two starter and is coming off a very sub-par season. It’s possible he has hit the wall due to the number of innings he’s thrown in his career. The options behind him are mediocre at best. The weight of the rotation is going to fall squarely on Paxton’s shoulders. Fortunately for the Mariners, he’s going to answer the bell and beat out the bigger names to take home to award in 2018.