Is Jacob Misiorowski the front-runner for the NL Cy Young award?
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National baseball writer Ken Rosenthal tackled a question on his May 26 "Foul Territory" appearance asking if Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Jacob Misiorowski had taken control of the National League Cy Young race at this point to the season. Rosenthal agreed that Miz was leading the way, but the number of contenders for the spot will make it a fierce competition.
"The NL Cy Young race … could be one of the best in history; right now, we have five starters with ERAs under 2, and the Miz is one of them," Rosenthal said, referring to Christopher Sánchez of the Philadelphia Phillies, Chase Burns of the Cincinnati Reds, Chris Sale and Bryce Elder of the Atlanta Braves among qualified starters.
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"We have a number of great pitchers going right now. [Reigning Cy Young winner and Pirates starter] Paul Skenes doesn't have an ERA under 2, but he's certainly going to be in the conversation. The first test of who the best pitcher in the National League is, 'Who starts the All-Star Game?' And if I had to guess right now, nothing changes, nobody gets hurt, I'd say Miz would be the choice to start the All-Star Game, just to see if he hits 105 [miles per hour], whatever he might do. He is, as you saw yesterday with the 12 strikeouts of the Cardinals, the dominant force in the game right now. It's going to be really interesting to see how this develops. We need everyone to stay healthy to make this the race that we all want it to be. Right now, I would say yes, Miz is the leading contender for the National League Cy."
Misiorowski left his start against St. Louis holding a 1.83 ERA, and he's the first pitcher in Major League Baseball to 100 strikeouts. Though he fell short of Teddy Higuera's franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings as a starting pitcher (32, Misiorowski ended at 29), he hasn't yielded an extra-base hit in six games (37 innings), going back to a double by Kyle Stowers on April 25. He hasn't allowed a home run since April 14, a run of 42 innings without permitting one since Wisconsin native Daulton Varsho of Toronto turned the trick.
Rosenthal credited the Brewers as one of the teams on a roll, and Misiorowski is naturally a big part of that.
"It's incredible what he's doing," Rosenthal said. "He hit 103 miles per hour eight times in the first inning, triple digits 57 times on the day … that's 10 more than any pitcher has ever accomplished, at least in the pitch-tracking era. The Miz is a phenomenon, he's a Cy Young contender, and he's not their only ace-like pitcher right now."
But don't just assume Misiorowski is the odds-on frontrunner. ESPN and some oddsmakers still saw Sánchez, the Phillies left-hander who's having a tremendous season, as the guy to chase.Fangraphs projections had Misiorowski fourth. BetMGM's latest roundup viewed Skenes as the frontrunner, in a tight race with Sánchez.
Sánchez has a stellar 1.62 ERA in 11 starts for the Phillies, including a complete-game shutout, and he has 86 strikeouts in 72 innings of work. He's coming off a huge 2025 season when he worked 202 innings and posted a 2.50 ERA, and Brewers fans might remember some All-Star Game hubbub last year when the Phillies were upset Misiorowski was chosen for the all-star game over someone like Sánchez, who was unavailable to work in the game because he pitched just before the all-star break. The league told the Phillies it was unwilling to name ceremonial roster replacements who wouldn't be available to appear.
The Brewers franchise record for strikeouts in a season is 264 by Ben Sheets in 2004. At his current rate (14.0 strikeouts per nine innings, which obliterates the previous best of 12.6 by Corbin Burnes in 2021), Misiorowski would be on pace to reach 312 strikeouts with 200 innings of work.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Think Jacob Misiorowski is front-runner for NL Cy Young? Not so fast