Shane McClanahan is New Odds Favorite for AL Cy Young (2022)

One of the most prestigious awards a pitcher in the MLB can receive is the Cy Young award. The American and National leagues reward the best pitchers of the year with an award honoring the great Cy Young.

Now that we are about closing in on the halfway point of the 2022 season, it’s a good time to look at the updated AL Cy Young odds. There are a ton of great pitchers in the American League and the new universal DH actually highlights them even more.

We started off this year with some different faces at the top of the AL Cy Young odds leaderboard, which just proves how much better the new favorite is. Let’s take a look at the updated odds for who will win the 2022 AL Cy Young award.

After 60 games or so, Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher Shane McClanahan has taken over the top spot in the AL Cy Young odds on Bovada. He’s had an incredible season so far and has earned a ton of respect in his second year in the majors.

With that being said, (+375) is technically the favorite but not by much. Astros’ veteran pitcher Justin Verlander is having himself an incredible bounce-back campaign and is right on McClanahan’s tail.

Manoah is tied in the odds with “Nasty Nestor,” who’s having an incredible breakout season for the Yankees. Nestor Cortes is one of the most entertaining pitchers to watch in the MLB with a ton of unique and crafty pitches, which makes him incredibly tough to hit.

Another Blue Jays pitcher that’s doing very well in 2022 is Kevin Gausman. Gausman broke out in 2021 with the Giants and earned a lucrative 5-year deal from the Blue Jays with $110 million. He’s been able to follow up his 2021 campaign with another strong one this year.

After these top options, there’s a steep dropoff for the next one (Dylan Cease, +1500). Even last year’s AL Cy Young winner in Robbie Ray is a huge longshot at (+10000).

Let’s take a further look at McClanahan’s 2022 campaign and see why he’s the favorite.

McClanahan’s ERA is a stellar 1.87 after his first 12 starts of the season (72.1 IP). Of qualified pitchers, his ERA ranks 4th in the MLB and second in the AL (Alek Manoah, 1.81 ERA). The hard-throwing lefty gets a ton of strikeouts as well with the second-highest strikeout rate (12.19 K/9) in the league.

Coming into this season, it was Gerrit Cole who was the leader in the odds at (+500). Cole’s season hasn’t matched his high expectations, but you can expect to see him in the top 20 by the end of the season.

McClanahan was expected to be a reliever in the majors, but he’s been outperforming his projection in spectacular fashion. His high 90s fastball and killer offspeed pitches really make him hard to score runs off of.

Shane McClanahan. Shoving. pic.twitter.com/wObqQZ80Nn

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 6, 2022

He throws his fastball 38% of the time and averages a steady 97 MPH. Once you try to reach his fastball, he can start mixing in a nasty curveball, slider, and changeup. His best-offspeed pitch is his curveball, which opposing batters are hitting just .143 against in 2022.

If you were able to grab McClanahan’s (+1600) odds before the season started, you should be in a very good spot right now. There’s still a ton of season left though, so it’s not too late to bet on McClanahan or another AL pitcher to win the 2022 Cy Young.