Ranking the top 5 NL Cy Young contenders following Justin Steele's latest masterpiece

3) Ranking the top 5 NL Cy Young contenders: Kodai Senga of the New York Mets

The New York Mets have arguably been the most disappointing team in all of baseball this season. They entered the season with World Series aspirations, yet they underwent a firesale at the deadline which included trades of aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

The Mets have disappointed, but Kodai Senga has been one of the few bright spot for New York. Senga's $75 million contract gave him high expectations entering the season, but you never really know how a pitcher who had never thrown a pitch in MLB before would do. After all, it took Shohei Ohtani until 2021 to put together a good and healthy pitching season.

Senga has not only met expectations, he's shattered them. The right-hander has gone 10-7 with a 3.08 ERA in 25 starts and 143.1 innings pitched. He was an all-star, and has been one of the more consistent pitchers in the game for the last couple of months.

Senga is most known for his "ghost fork" and it's easy to see why, as it's been one of the best pitches in baseball this season. He has held opponents to a .113 average with a whopping 60.2% whiff rate with that pitch which leads the majors.

His walks are a bit high, but that's come down a lot since the beginning of the year. His ERA is half a run higher than the top two candidates which hurts him, but with how well he's pitched the gap can easily be bridged.