The AL Cy Young Race Is Close as Can Be

In all honesty, I wish that we could give out two AL Cy Young awards. Why? Because to reward only one player this season would be to do a disservice to the other contender. If Kluber wins, Sale will have been robbed, but if Sale wins, Kluber will just as equally been robbed.

Both Kluber and Sale are by far and away the best pitchers in the majors this season (sorry, Kershaw). There's a huge gap in production between them and whoever is the third best pitcher in the bigs (a much tighter race of Luis Severino, Zack Greinke, Jimmy Nelson, Max Scherzer, and Stephen Strasburg). But comparing Kluber and Sale to each other? They're neck and neck.

Sale has a slight edge in cumulative stats in large part from having pitched a few more innings than Kluber. But Kluber has kept up with Sale and even outperformed him in most intensive stats, and most ERA-related metrics like FIP and SIERA are completely split on who's been better.

It's fairly rare to have such great pitchers fighting it out for the AL Cy Young. The last time two or more AL pitchers finished with more than 7 fWAR in a season was 2009, when Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander, and Zach Greinke each finished with 7+ fWAR. However, Greinke had far better numbers than the other two and was almost unanimously voted to the Cy Young that year—the decision for voters this season looks to be far more difficult.

So if I'm a voter, who do I vote for?

Personally, I think Sale has the edge. In evaluating pitchers, I love strikeout pitchers, because they produce the most reliable results. This isn't to say Kluber isn't a strikeout guy, but Sale has taken it to a completely different level this season.

Sale has propelled himself into elite company. The last time someone was racking up strikeouts like Sale was in 2001, when Randy Johnson posted a ridiculous 13.41 K/9 rate. Sale has the second best K/9 of the 21st century, and he's the first AL pitcher to rack up 300 strikeouts since Pedro Martinez did it in 1999.

Keep in mind, Johnson's 13.41 K/9 was accompanied by a 2.56 BB/9 rate, but Sale is fifth in the majors in BB/9 with a 1.76 figure. Sale isn't going fishing, and he's not a high strikeout guy who also walks a lot of guys too (not to say that a 2.56 BB/9 is atrocious or that Johnson wasn't elite). He's a pitcher who consistently ends at-bats with the batter walking back to the dugout in disgust. He's the best guy in the majors at that.

Sale is having a historic season. While Kluber certainly has a strong case, it would be wrong to ignore Sale's accomplishments or the absurd brilliance of his season. It's close, but ultimately, Sale deserves the Cy Young award.