National League Cy Young: Noah Syndergaard, starting pitcher, New York Mets
Whoever wins this award will have earned it. Syndergaard is one of a stacked field of pitchers that includes Clayton Kershaw, Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, and of course, 2016 winner Max Scherzer.
Predicting any of those guys would be completely logical. So, why Syndergaard?
The jump he made in 2016 is simply too great to ignore. He went from 150 innings in 2015 to 183.2 in 2016, but lowered his ERA from 3.24 to 2.60. Thor also bumped his K/9 rate up from 10.0 to 10.7. Also, much like Kluber, he kept a remarkably modest walk total (2.1 BB/9) for such a powerful arm.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Syndergaard gets to make half of his starts at Citi Field. While the drawn-in fences have made the park a little more hitter friendly, it’s still a clear pitcher’s ballpark.
Lastly, other than Kershaw and Bumgarner, all of the pitchers mentioned above are north of 30. Kershaw and Bumgarner aren’t, but both have been in the league since before they were 20. There’s a lot of mileage on those tanks.
Syndergaard, meanwhile, is 24. Those guys may not all be on the downhill slide yet, but they’re not ascending, either. Syndergaard clearly is.
All of those factors combined to make him our leading candidate to emerge though a crowded field and win the National League Cy Young’s Award.