MLB power rankings: Ranking the Cy Young candidates without leagues

Kevin Gausman has continued to show that he is one of the top arms in the league ever since he was traded to the Reds back in 2019. He has not been getting much national media attention, but he is a big reason the Blue Jays have been able to stay afloat.

Gausman sports an ERA of 3.12 (125 ERA+), and leads the league in FIP for starters with a 2.17. He also leads the AL in K/BB ratio with a 7.39.

If Guasman would have pitched more innings, he would be higher on the list. He only has 147 at the time of this writing. If he had his accumulative/counting stats would be higher, helping his case.

For example, he is seventh in the AL in strikeouts, but based on his 10.4 strikeouts-per-9 innings pitched, he would be much higher. The leader in innings pitched (more on him later) has 190.2 innings pitched thus far.

If Gausman had that many innings at his current rates, he would lead all of MLB in Strikeouts. However, since he has not, we cannot count it as if it did happen.

There is no doubt about it, Dylan Cease is having a great year. He is 5th in all of MLB in Strikeouts, and 4th in among starters in Strikeouts per 9 innings.

Cease is 9th in MLB in fWAR with 3.8, and has very good ERA of 2.13 (187 ERA+).

The main reason he is not higher on the list is because of his walks. Of the 10 players in these rankings, he has the most Walks per 9 innings (3.69). To put that into perspective, 3.69 is a full walk-per-9 higher than the second highest. Cease has also been added with a high strand rate. His 81.8 percent left-on-base rate is the highest on this list. In fact, 3.69 is the worst in MLB for qualified players.

This is in no way a knock on Cease. He should rightfully get some Cy Young votes, there are just more pitchers above him in the rankings that have had better seasons.