Breaking down favorites, sleepers, and dark horses for 2020 NL Cy Young Award

MLB’s 2020 season is around the corner and spring training is set to begin Friday. This means we’ll start to get a look at each team’s pitching rotations. There are lots of talented arms in the National League, and we took a look at the odds players have to win the league’s Cy Young award this year on DraftKings Sportsbook. Here are some names you should keep an eye on.

Favorites

New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom (+300) is the odds-on favorite to take home NL’s 2020 Cy Young Award. He took home the hardware in 2018 and 2019 with the lowest ERA in MLB in 2018 (1.70) and most strikeouts in the NL (255) the following year. Last season, he finished second in WAR and third in FIP and xFIP across all of baseball. He has Noah Syndergaard (+2800) and Marcus Stroman (+6600) behind him in the rotation and should continue to be the top dog moving forward.

deGrom is trailed by Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer (+375) and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Walker Buehler (+900). Scherzer has three Cy Young Awards to his name and was a critical part to his team’s 2019 World Series run. He’s been consistently good for too long to count out. Walker, 25, had a breakout year in last season and earned his first-ever All-Star nod. He showcased a ton of potential and could be posed to rise to the top.

Sleeper

The Atlanta Braves’ Max Fried (+2800) had 17 wins last season and only trailed Stephen Strasburg’s 18 in that department. He worked his way into a regular starting role last season and impressed with his devastating curveball and defensive effort. He finished the season ninth in xFIP across all of MLB. Atlanta finished first in the NL East last season, so Fried has a chance to shine on a championship contender. If he continues to improve, he could firmly assert himself as the top option before long.

Dark horse

Strikeouts matter to some voters when it comes to the Cy Young award, and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Robbie Ray (+5000) racked up a ton (235) last season. That was good for fifth in the NL. He’s 28 years old and tied a career high with 174.1 innings pitched. He was second in the NFL in Ks/9, trailing only Max Scherzer. If he can boost his innings total, he could challenge Scherzer for top dog among strikeout pitchers. If he wants to boost a long-shot bid for the Cy Young, Arizona will likely have to be more competitive this season.

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