Worst possible competition for Shohei Ohtani’s Cy Young dreams is emerging in NL West

He hasn't admitted it out loud, but it's no secret that Shohei Ohtani is gunning for a Cy Young award. He doesn't even need to say it himself — he's got Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman and his Dodgers teammates to start that campaign early for him.

Ohtani's 0.60 ERA in 30 innings reflects his status as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball right now, but he still has an uphill battle to fight. The Angels' José Soriano has looked almost just as good (0.84 ERA) in more innings (42 2/3). The question for Ohtani is whether or not he'll have the innings to back up the ERA. That's the bar for starting pitchers.

But right now, the pitcher getting all of the NL Cy Young hype isn't Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Paul Skenes. It's not even a starter. It's Mason Miller.

Miller's looked almost untouchable with the division rival Padres. He's closed a league-leading 14 games and, accordingly, has a league-leading 10 saves in 10 opportunities.

Not only would it hurt to lose a Cy Young to a Padre, but for Miller to be the first reliever to do it since NL's Eric Gagné? Woof.

Mason Miller is emerging as a contender for the Cy Young award Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto are chasing

Miller was on a 13 1/3-inning scoreless streak to start the season, which was just broken up on Monday by the Cubs, who somehow managed to score two runs off of him. He bounced back on Wednesday and didn't even allow a hit.

Could Miller ever hope to reach the bar Gagné set in 2003, when he pitched 82 1/3 innings, the vast majority as the Dodgers' closer, with 55 saves? Could he even surpass Edwin Díaz, whose 2018 season with 57 saves puts him second on the all-time leaderboard? Unfortunately, it's possible.

There's a reason only nine relievers have ever won a Cy Young. Starting pitchers are becoming more and more high-powered every year while relievers are being devalued, but Miller could break the mold if he continues at the rate he's going.

The Dodgers are still trying to figure out the right balance for Ohtani, who has looked like a much better pitcher than hitter so far this season. He pitched on as few as five days' rest his last time out and has pitched six innings every time, but he's going to need to ramp it up if he wants to add this one to his trophy case.

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