Tyler Glasnow is a Dark Horse Cy Young Candidate
The Los Angeles Dodgers have an abundance of riches of their pitching workers, with a number of pitchers able to being front-line starters for any crew in MLB.
Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto stole all the headlines naturally, with Ohtani being a high 10 pitcher and hitter within the National League, whereas Yamamoto has cemented his standing as a true workhorse after his 2025 World Series MVP run.
Considering how particular each Yamamoto and Ohtani are and their international star powerit is easy for the remainder of the pitching workers to go underneath the radar.
But there’s one other pitcher behind these stars who has a likelihood to win baseball’s highest honor for a hurler.
Dodgers Have an Embarrassment of Riches at Pitcher
Ranking third by way of profile is arguably Blake Snell, who has received two Cy Young awards himself, one thing each Yamamoto and Ohtani are chasing.
Also, his stuff is nasty, and as a southpaw, he stands out amongst all the right-handed high quality pitchers.
He signed a huge five-year, $136 million deal in free company, and whereas he is coming into his mid-30s, Snell stays an elite beginning pitcher, as evidenced by his 2025 postseason efficiency.
Roki Sasaki, who has achieved little success as a starter, stays the biggest mystery and potential x-factor for the Dodgers.
The group is intent on realizing his potential as a starter, which has led to him being thought to be the most effective prospects to ever come out of Japan, despite the fact that he was sensible as a spotlight within the 2025 postseason.
Apart from Sasaki, there are a ton of promising younger arms who profile as potential starters who function swingmen for essentially the most half.
Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Justin Wrobleski, Gavin Stone, Jackson Ferris — simply to call a few — are all hurlers who give the Dodgers nice depth.
However, hidden like a needle within the haystack is Tyler Glasnow, who profiles because the prototype for an ace, however he has been susceptible to lacking prolonged time on the injured checklist, which has led him to go underneath the radar.
With Glasnow wanting more healthy than he has ever been and a robust begin to the season, he is a darkish horse candidate to usurp Yamamoto and Ohtani among the many different NL Cy Young contenders, and take house an award many pegged him to get as a prospect.
A Clean Bill of Health (Hopefully)
Tyler Glasnow has a long history of injuries all through his 10-year MLB profession.
He has didn’t throw greater than 134 innings in a season, one thing that has him out of the operating for conversations about the perfect pitchers in baseball.
Glasnow throws right-handed at 6 toes, 8 inches, with a lengthy body that has led to accidents. He has battled ankle points, forearm strains, Tommy John surgical procedure on his elbow, an indirect pressure, and proper shoulder irritation.
His shoulder points saved him out for months in 2025, with him getting wholesome down the stretch for a key rotation position.
Back in spring coaching, Glasnow made it clear that he is aiming to stay healthy this season.
“My biggest goal is to just stay healthy, log innings and not be put on the IL for an extended amount of time,” Glasnow said.
“I don’t think [spring training] feels any different, just trying to solid everything mechanically and recovery-wise and just trying to stay healthy and log a lot of innings.”
Manager Dave Roberts is hoping to lean on Glasnow in 2026 as effectively, together with his workload seeking to be regular for a beginning pitcher, maybe for the primary time in his profession.
“If I had to look at guys that I feel really good about right now, to kind of have a normal workload, Tyler and Roki would be at the top with Yamamoto,” Roberts said.
Even if Glasnow finally ends up having an injury-riddled profession, he is certain to have a handful of wholesome years. Blake Snell, his teammate, has a related label, however he even managed to place collectively a couple of full seasons.
The Stuff Looks Better Than Ever
At the time of writing, earlier than Glasnow makes his third begin, Glasnow has pitched six innings in every of his two begins.
He has allowed 4 hits in every outing, together with two earned runs. His first begin, towards the Arizona Diamondbacks, noticed him get six punchouts with one other 9 coming towards the Washington Nationals.
His Stuff+ is solely 104, not almost his profession excessive of 124, however the pattern measurement stays small for his stuff. His common fastball velocity is up a tick from his 2026 season, at even 96 mph, up from 95.7 mph in 2025.
Considering it is nonetheless early within the season and Glasnow doesn’t have to push it too exhausting with hitters nonetheless stepping into the groove, Glasnow ought to have one other gear to achieve if wanted.
His anticipated numbers are all extraordinarily promising, with a 2.15 anticipated ERA and a 1.43 FIP, highlighting that he is nonetheless getting some dangerous luck by way of fielding.
He is not permitting exhausting hits — 83rd percentile exhausting hit charge — and his strikeout charge is 84th percentile, utilizing his command to color across the margins.
Glasnow’s Location+ is 111, making his Pitching+ 117, very effectively above common. The solely alarming numbers for Glasnow are the Twenty fifth-percentile chase charge and the 51st-percentile whiff r ate.
His pitching run worth is 88th percentile, and if he does deploy extra of his remaining juice as a pitcher, Glasnow will have the ability to put up the metrics for a Cy Young case.
A True Window of Opportunity
The Dodgers are set to win a ton of video games, more likely to lead MLB in wins, which is able to encourage voters to reward the crew’s gamers with awards if they honestly have a particular season.
Glasnow can be proper in line for a Cy Young, at the very least getting votes if he stays wholesome. The race might be really open within the National League.
Early on within the season, Sandy Alcantara is wanting like his former ace self, whereas Crisopher Sanchez, Logan Webb, and Paul Skenes will all the time be on the run.
However, Skenes and Webb haven’t been at their finest to begin the yr, leaving a likelihood for Glasnow to maintain his scorching begin going and construct a whole lot of momentum.
On the Dodgers, Yamamoto is the largest risk to Glasnow, who is recognized for stockpiling high quality innings. Ohtani, even when his manufacturing and metrics look nice, he can have a small margin of error because of the variety of innings he can pitch.
At the age of 32, Glasnow has the perfect run of his profession to seize the best award for a pitcher. It will probably be as much as him to remain wholesome and pitch his finest, which many have lengthy believed is adequate for the award.
