Dodgers Pitchers in Battle For Tightly Contested Cy Young
The Los Angeles Dodgers have three pitchers firmly in the Cy Young mix early in the 2026 season, giving the team a real chance at the award.
Heading into the season, the Cy Young was seemingly Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes ’ to lose, but a slow start — by his own amazing standards — has started to open the door for others to emerge in the race with serious odds.
The Dodgers, who have one of the best rotations in baseball, feature three contenders in the race — Yoshinobu Yamamoto , Shohei Ohtani , and Tyler Glasnow .
All three have been stellar to start the year, and they look to be pitching quite easily without much strain on their bodies. They look to be on track to stay healthy all season long.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto has the best odds for the Cy Young
Yamamoto is, by all accounts, the consensus favorite out of the Dodgers’ rotation to have the best shot at winning the Cy Young.
FanGraphs, via their Cy Young projection tool, has Yamamoto fifth in the National League in terms of season-long projection, one spot above Ohtani.
However, betting odds have Yamamoto in the top three, along with Skenes and Cristopher Sanchez , with the Pittsburgh Pirates still the favorite, per Vegas.
With the Japanese ace taking home the World Series MVP in 2025 and proving to be a workhorse for Los Angeles, he should lead the team in innings and rack up more WAR out of the bunch.
He has gotten off to a slower start than he did in 2025, when he had a sub-1 ERA in the first month of the season.
The righty has a 2.48 ERA and 3.17 FIP with 32.2 innings pitched and only 0.8 fWAR. He is not walking many hits, but he is not striking out many either, as his stuff has not been totally sharp.
Through five starts, Yamamoto is only eighth in fWAR, but it is decisively ahead of Skenes and Webb, putting him only on the back foot to Sanchez and another contender in Ohtani.
Once Yamamoto finds his gear and, hopefully, gets some run support, he should end up as a finalist for the award.
Shohei Ohtani is not a dark-horse Cy Young candidate
Ohtani has made one fewer start than Yamamoto due to the two-way player’s lighter schedule and already has 8.2 fewer innings than Yamamoto, giving him a big hole to climb out of.
However, Ohtani has been better on a smaller workload, posting 1.1 fWAR and a stellar 0.38 ERA after his dominant performance against the San Francisco Giants .
He is ticking his fastball up start over start, while pounding his sweeper as the primary secondary pitch of choice.
His strikeout rate is not as high as usual for Ohtani, but he is also not giving up hard contact, and his command is getting noticeably better from start to start.
Following his Giants outing, Ohtani has moved into the top five odds-wise and sits as a top contender for the award according to current season results per FanGraphs.
The issue for Ohtani’s campaign will always be innings pitched, with starters able to go more often. Still, if he keeps being so effective in his limited outings, Ohtani is a true threat to Yamamoto, Skenes, and Sanchez for the award.
Tyler Glasnow is in the picture for the Cy Young
Out of the three, Glasnow is the true dark horse. He is often overlooked amid his dynamic Japanese teammates, especially given his laid-back personality.
MLB has always seen Glasnow as one of the game’s elite pitchers, but the narrative and the facts are that injuries have kept him from putting up complete, top-pitching seasons.
Glasnow needs to prove he can stay healthy before spectators will believe he can, but he has looked sharp since the start of spring, and it has carried over into the regular season.
Before his start on Thursday, he has a 3.24 ERA that is clouded by some bad luck.
He has a 2.58 ERA, 0.8 fWAR, and honestly, Glasnow has only made a few mistakes, but other than that, the tall righty has been lights out, especially with his curveball.
His fastball is having more success than ever because his curveball sets hitters up to expect low-velocity vertical movement.
Analytically and the eye test point to Glasnow finally piecing together a full, elite season, and if he does, there is little doubt that he will get a Cy Young vote.
His viability to win the award will come down to his stuff kicking up a gear and his command maintaining at this career-best level.
