The results from MLB.com’s second Cy Young Award poll of the season are in, and there’s been significant turnover at the top.
We have a new leader in both the American League and the National League, neither of whom finished higher than third when voters weighed in on the Cy Young races three weeks ago. Neither of our second-place finishers were higher than fifth the first time around.
Once again, voters were asked to rank their top five Cy Young candidates in each league based on what has happened so far and what they expect will happen in the months to come. Pitchers received vote points on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale — five points for a first-place vote, four points for a second-place vote and so on, with 47 voters participating. Here are the results.
1) Nestor Cortes, Yankees (19 first-place votes)
Cortes finished third last time, but he converted more voters in the past few weeks. In fact, he received more first-place votes than any other pitcher in either the AL or the NL. The man known as “Nasty Nestor” had his worst outing of the season Wednesday against the Twins, but he still owns a 1.96 ERA — the fourth-best mark in the AL — with 71 K’s and 14 walks over 64 1/3 innings.
2) Shane McClanahan, Rays (6 first-place votes)
McClanahan’s continued dominance earned him more support than he got a few weeks ago, as he moved up from fifth to second. Among qualifying pitchers in the AL, the electric southpaw ranks in the top three with a 1.87 ERA (third), a 0.86 WHIP (second), 98 strikeouts (first), 72 1/3 innings (first) and a .188 opponents’ batting average (third).
3) Justin Verlander, Astros (7 first-place votes)
The AL leader in our first poll of the year, Verlander dropped a bit in the second go-round, though he’s coming off a start in which he struck out a season-high 12 and allowed only one run over seven innings against the Mariners. Verlander’s return after a lengthy absence has gone seamlessly. He leads the AL in WHIP (0.84) while ranking second in the league in innings (71 2/3) opponents’ batting average (.183) and fifth in ERA (2.13), all with a 39-year-old right arm that just went through an arduous rehab process following Tommy John surgery.
4) Gerrit Cole, Yankees (8 first-place votes)
The Yankees’ ace has been outshined by Cortes so far, but he put up a 2.03 ERA with a 69-to-8 K/BB ratio in 53 1/3 innings over eight starts leading into Thursday’s outing against the Twins. Thursday’s outing was rough — Cole was hit hard for seven runs over 2 1/3 innings, with five of the eight hits he gave up being homers.
5) Martín Pérez, Rangers (3 first-place votes)
Voters have been slow to buy in on Pérez’s hot start, but some have started to come around. In his past nine starts, he’s allowed six earned runs in 61 1/3 innings, good for a 0.88 ERA. Pérez, who entered 2022 with a lifetime 4.71 ERA over 10 MLB seasons, now leads the Majors in that department with a 1.56 mark.
Others receiving votes: Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman (4 first-place votes), Tarik Skubal, Logan Gilbert, Jameson Taillon, Frankie Montas, Dylan Cease, Shohei Ohtani
1) Joe Musgrove, Padres (17 first-place votes)
Seems as though Musgrove’s 2021 breakout was only the beginning. Through 66 innings this season, he owns a 1.64 ERA and a career-best 4.57 K/BB ratio. Including his no-hit bid against the Brewers on June 3, Musgrove has allowed just one run in 21 frames over his past three starts, propelling his jump from fifth to first.
2) Sandy Alcantara, Marlins (16 first-place votes)
Although the Marlins have never had a Cy Young Award winner in their history, the club has not one but two strong candidates this season, starting with Alcantara. The 26-year-old has put together an utterly dominant stretch, allowing just three earned runs in 48 innings (0.56 ERA) over his past six starts, including nine shutout innings against the Nationals on Wednesday.
3) Corbin Burnes, Brewers (12 first-place votes)
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner earned a first-place nod from MLB.com voters last month and was on track to take the top spot again, but he had his worst start of the season on June 3 against the Padres (opposite Musgrove’s no-hit bid), causing his ERA to rise by more than a half-run. The righty still earned 12 first-place votes, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from dropping to third.
4) Pablo López, Marlins
López has been leapfrogged by his teammate, Alcantara, after finishing second in the first MLB.com Cy Young poll of 2022, but he garnered enough support to place fourth this time around. It was always going to be tough for him to replicate his eye-popping April numbers (0.39 ERA, 0.73 WHIP), but López has remained effective for the Marlins into June.
5) (tie) Max Fried, Braves; Josh Hader, Brewers (1 first-place vote)
Fried doesn’t post the gaudy strikeout totals of some of the other top aces around baseball, but few have been better than the Braves left-hander over the past three seasons. He finished in a fifth-place tie with Hader, who went 18-for-18 in save chances and didn’t allow a run in his first 19 appearances of 2022 before the Phillies touched him up on Tuesday.
Others receiving votes: Zack Wheeler, Carlos Rodón, Kyle Wright, Tony Gonsolin (1 first-place vote), Tyler Anderson, Zac Gallen, Eric Lauer, Walker Buehler, Aaron Nola, MacKenzie Gore, Carlos Carrasco