Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw’s 2017 Cy Young Chances

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has been back in the rotation and is possibly on his way to adding another Cy Young trophy to his collection this year.

King Kershaw has made three starts since his return from the DL with a lower back injury that forced him to miss five weeks. He has come back just in time with the playoffs right around the corner and the Dodgers desperately needing him with all their struggles recently.

The Dodgers were 2-1 in Kershaw’s three starts since his return and were 0-15 in all the team’s other games before Yu Darvish’s, and Alex Wood’s wins these last two games.

When Kershaw first went down the Dodgers continued to dominate for the first few weeks, but there is only so long you can keep up a winning pace like the one they were on without their best player.

Kershaw returned to the Dodgers’ rotation September 1^st looking like his usual dominant self against the Padres, pitching six shutout innings striking out seven with no walks. He was so great he didn’t even allow one batter to hit a ball into the outfield.

However, he did struggle in his second start against the Rockies, pitching 3.2 innings and allowing four earned runs and getting the loss in the process. At that time not even the great Kershaw could stop the Dodgers losing run.

He did regroup and got back on track against a team Kershaw frequently dominates, the Giants, pitching six innings while allowing two runs (one earned) while striking out six and getting the win.

It’s an exciting race when you look at his numbers in comparison to the other Cy Young candidates. When Kershaw initially got injured in a July 23^rd start against the Braves, it was thought that Kershaw had no chance of winning the Cy Young. At that time it was a real close race between him and Washington’s Max Scherzer, but after Scherzer’s recent start against the same team Kershaw got injured against, a 4th career Cy Young for Kershaw is still a possibility.

Scherzer had his worst start of the season in his last outing against the Braves allowing seven earned runs in six innings. This raised his ERA from 2.32 to 2.59, almost a half of a run difference from Kershaw now.

Kershaw is the league leader in ERA at 2.12 and even with all his time missed is still tied for the NL lead in wins with 17 along with Milwaukee’s Zach Davies. Not only is does he have 17 wins, his three losses gives him the best winning percentage in all of baseball.

Kershaw is in the top 2 in almost every significant pitching category. His numbers are as follows: ERA 1^st, Wins tied 1^st, Winning % 1^st, WHIP 2^nd, H/9 2^nd, SO/9 2^nd, SO/BB 1^st, Adjusted ERA 1^st, FIP 2nd.

Kershaw is scheduled to make three more starts this season which would put him at a total of 27 for the season. 27 Starts is coincidently the exact amount of starts that Kershaw made when he won his last Cy Young in 2014.

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Not only did he win the Cy Young that year, but he also took home the NL MVP. This shows that despite other pitchers remaining healthy all season, Kershaw still put in enough work to warrant winning the award.

Another thing that could help Kershaw is the fact that three of the other top candidates all play on the same team. Not only do the Nationals have Scherzer, but they also have Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg who are having great seasons as well.

Those three pitchers are ranked 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th in ERA all behind Kershaw. In the case of Strasburg, he leads the league in FIP at 2.79. FIP is a great stat because it shows how good a pitcher has been in the things he could actually control. In that case, it can allow someone to make the argument that Strasburg has been the most consistent pitcher this year.

However, Strasburg is behind Kershaw in every other significant pitching category and is behind his teammate Scherzer in most others as well. And anytime you have three top pitchers on one team they can take away votes from each other.

The Dodgers were actually in a similar situation like this a couple of years ago when they had Zack Greinke. In 2015, both Greinke and Kershaw had great years, but Cubs’ Jake Arrieta took home the Cy Young after the historical 2^nd half stretch he went on.

Grienke finished second, and Kershaw finished third while both receiving some 1^st place votes. If Kershaw finishes out the season strong, there will be no reason why he wouldn’t win another Cy Young.

His number would all be there right at the top. If he wins his 4^th this year, it will tie him with all-time greats Greg Maddux and Steve Carlton for the third most all time. Randy Johnson is second with five, and Roger Clemens has the most at seven.

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Kershaw, who still isn’t even 30 years old, would have a real shot of catching Clemens if he can remain healthy. At this point, individual awards like Cy Youngs are not as important to Kershaw; it is all about winning a World Series. But it is always nice to add to your legacy.