The Minnesota Twins Have Two Real Cy Young Candidates

[Matthew Taylor]

On Wednesday morning, MLB.com released their latest Cy Young poll which featured two Minnesota Twins starters in the top five for the American League.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

The Minnesota Twins have one of the best rotations in all of baseball through the first quarter of the MLB season. Twins starters rank second in the American League in ERA and first in strikeout rate. With a rotation as successful as the Minnesota Twins rotation has been, it’s unsurprising to see that they have two starting pitchers in the latest American League Cy Young Award poll that was released on Wednesday.

Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan have both been having elite starts to the 2023 season. 

Through nine starts, Sonny Gray owns a 1.64 ERA which is best in the American League. Gray has yet to allow more than three earned runs in a start all season and his 10.9 K/9 is the best of his career. Arguably the most impressive part about Gray’s statistics through his first nine starts is that he has put up those numbers against some of the best teams in baseball, going against the likes of the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Joe Ryan has been having nearly just as good of a year as his right-handed rotation counterpart. Through eight starts, Ryan owns a 2.16 ERA, with a career-high K/9 of 10.3 and a WHIP of 0.84. Similar to Gray, Ryan has dominated elite offensive competition in the Astros, Yankees (x2) and Red Sox. Over his last four starts, Ryan has allowed just three earned runs with a 28/3 K/BB ratio.

As shown in the latest Cy Young poll from MLB.com, the biggest competition to the Twins’ right handers for the award are Gerrit Cole, Shane McClanahan and Shohei Ohtani. Let’s take a look at how the pitchers stack up against each other.

Of the starting pitchers in top 5 from MLB’s Cy Young poll, Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan rank first and third, respectively, in fWAR. Additionally, Sonny Gray ranks first in ERA while Joe Ryan ranks first in WHIP and K/BB ratio. Looking just at the numbers above, a strong case could be made that either Sonny Gray or Joe Ryan could be considered the front-runner for the award right now, with the obvious caveat that there is a ton of baseball left to be played.

If either Sonny Gray or Joe Ryan do come away with the Cy Young hardware, they would be the first Minnesota Twins pitcher to do so since Johan Santana, who won the award in 2004 and 2006. (He should have won in 2005 as well. Thanks, Bartolo Colon…) Before Santana, the last Minnesota Twins pitcher to win the Cy Young Award was Frank “Sweet Music” Viola who won the award in 1988 with a 2.64 ERA and a league-leading 24 wins.

Do you think that Joe Ryan or Sonny Gray have a real shot at winning the Cy Young Award this season? Leave a comment below and start the conversation!

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[Fire Dan Gladden]

Too bad voting doesn't end 1/4 of the way through the season.

Very happy Gray and Ryan are off to strong starts.  We know there will be some regression, let's hope it isn't too drastic.

[Linus]

I don’t think either will be in contention for the award but am excited that we have two top level starters. I’m not the biggest fan of our FO but those were two really good trades. 

[Brandon]

If only we had that ace level starter……

 

[mikelink45]

Too early!  fun to speculate, but even the All star break is early. 

[wsnydes]

I'm glad that they're pitching really well and it is certainly better than the opposite, but it's still May.  Far too early to even tease end of the year awards.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Two aces beat one ace in poker. Hope Ryan wins tonight.  

[USNMCPO]

Let's be honest. Cole in NYC will win it. He probably will deserve it and that will be fine but let's not get confused about a comparison between NYC and the corn fields. 

[Dman]

It is going to be tough to beat Cole but having two guys in the top five right now is something I don't think my brain can handle.  I am not used to having one top of line starter let alone two.  The season is long so hard to say what will happen but I assume both Gray and Ryan will regress some and others will move higher up the chain.  I am just happy we have a strong rotation this year.

[jmlease1]

Joe Ryan's K/BB ratio is siiiiiiick.

I love having two starters who are being floated as Cy contenders. Is it likely to happen? eh, maybe not but hopefully it's not because of regression bringing them too far back down. If Cole keeps going like this he'll be hard to beat between his excellent performance, stature in the game, NY media market, and the fact that if Gray and Ryan both keep kicking butt like this they'll potentially pull votes from each other.

Gotta say, I might be ok with someone else winning because voters couldn't decide if Gray or Ryan was most worthy by the end of the year. :)

[Chachi]

Double checks….nope, it’s not a randball article!

[jkcarew]

I’d rather have 3 legitimately good starters than one Cy Young guy and little else. In the ‘real’ post season, it’s about how you match up at 1, 2, and 3. Yes, being at a real disadvantage at the no. 1 matchup can be deflating. But that can be overcome if matchups 2 and 3 are even or better….all the more realistically if the discrepancy at no. 1 isn’t dramatic.

I think this is what…at least at the quarter pole…SEEMS like a somewhat realistic situation for the Twins in 2023. Even with a faulty offense, you have a puncher’s chance if the starter is keeping you in the game. I don’t think that’s been a realistic playoff scenario for the Twins in a long, long time.

Now, if the bats and the bullpen will allow us to get there.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

This is fantastic! The last time there was more than one Twins pitcher in the conversation was back in the Santana, Liriano, and Nathan days!  I'll never hold my breath for any pitcher to keep it up (although Santana was quite reliable), but I'm rooting hard for both of them. 

 

[jkcarew]

3 hours ago, USNMCPO said:

Let's be honest. Cole in NYC will win it. He probably will deserve it and that will be fine but let's not get confused about a comparison between NYC and the corn fields. 

Since Ron Guidry won it in 1978, a Yankees pitcher has won it one time. Twins pitchers have three since then.

I think they’ve got it wrong a few times, but don’t see any east coast bias (or west coast bias) for this award in resent history.

[IndianaTwin]

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

If only we had that ace level starter……

 

You beat me to this. 😃

My point in the offseason, which I will stay with, is that while we may not have a guy that will be an "ace" year in and year out, we have a number of guys who can pitch like an "ace" for an extended period of time.

And the great thing about that is that when two go down, there is depth to replace. And if Gray or Ryan's extended period of time dries up, it's not unreasonable to see Lopez go on a run.

 

(I feel the same about the offense, but that's another post. Let the regression to the mean begin/continue.)  

[JoeCool]

Ryan has something unique in his makeup. Gray is starting to regress a bit, but really since Ryan came up he has had some big game moxie and is constantly working hard to improve.  He also does not get fazed by the big stage as shown in some of his games against playoff caliber opponents. You don’t need to throw 100 to be an ace. Joe is the real deal. 

[jimbo92107]

The advantage I give to Joe Ryan is that his pitching style does not appear to require a massive amount of energy. Sonny Gray looks and sounds like he's expending max effort with each pitch. If I'm right, then Ryan's game is more likely to last the season than Gray's game is. 

Still, as many have said, there's a lot of baseball yet to be played.

[Parfigliano]

7 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Too bad voting doesn't end 1/4 of the way through the season.

Very happy Gray and Ryan are off to strong starts.  We know there will be some regression, let's hope it isn't too drastic.

Why regression?  Maybe this is who they are.

[minman1982]

The dumpster fire that is the rest of the Yankees starting rotation is probably helping Cole out here. He is legitimately putting his team on his back. The Twins, on the other hand, have had a solid starting rotation this season. Gray and Ryan are certainly the two best but the others have been better than Cole's rotation mates to start the season. 

Honestly, I don't care much about the hardware as long as Gray and Ryan keep doing their thing. It would be awesome to go into a five-game series in October knowing that you have TWO guys who you can count on to get in done in game 1.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

21 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Why regression?  Maybe this is who they are.

While I tend to be optimistic, if Ryan and Gray continue to pitch this way for the rest of the year, they would be putting up historic level numbers.  Gray's season would be top 45 ever, with Ryan right outside the top 100.

We can always dream...