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Jacob deGrom will look to build on a healthy 2025 season.
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Tarik Skubal has won the last two American League (AL) Cy Young Awards, nabbing all 30 first-place votes in 2024 and securing 26 first-place votes in 2025, with Garrett Crochet collecting the other four first-place votes. Skubal and Crochet are justifiably priced as the favorite and the second-most likely pitcher to win the AL Cy Young Award this season. Neither pitcher’s odds are too short to warrant betting consideration.
However, there are more enticing betting options after Skubal and Crochet. Namely, a veteran righty with a pair of National League (NL) Cy Young Awards on his mantle and a 28-year-old lefty with elite strikeout production have tantalizing betting odds with legitimate chances to win the 2026 AL Cy Young Award.
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American League Cy Young Picks
Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers - SP)
Player to win the AL Cy Young Award (+1300) at DraftKings Sportsbook
Jacob deGrom won back-to-back NL Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019, and he was fantastic in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Unfortunately, he pitched fewer than 100 innings in each of the following four seasons. Injuries became a recurring theme for deGrom.
Last year, deGrom put together a brilliant campaign, and he logged a whopping 172.2 innings across 30 starts. Among 49 pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched in 2025, deGrom was 12th in innings pitched (172.2), eighth in ERA (2.97), eighth in expected ERA (3.36 xERA), eighth in xFIP (3.37), tied for sixth in SIERA (3.32), third in WHIP (0.92), tied for seventh in walk rate (5.5%) and sixth in strikeout rate (27.7%).
His plate-discipline and pitch-modeling numbers were also pristine. Among the same sample of pitchers, deGrom was third in swinging-strike rate (14.3%), seventh in called-plus-swinging-strike rate (28.9%), fifth in swing rate on pitches outside the strike zone (35.8%), fifth in contact rate on pitches in the strike zone (83.7%), tied for fourth in Stuff+ (111), tied for seventh in Location+ (106) and tied with Skubal for first in Pitching+ (119).
After logging a healthy 2025 season, deGrom could push for 190-plus innings. The 37-year-old two-time NL Cy Young Award winner showed he still had it last year, and he’s among the top pitchers in the AL. The +1300 odds for deGrom to win the AL Cy Young Award are too long for how well he pitched last year, while also proving he could stay healthy.
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Cole Ragans is one of the top strikeout artists in the American League (AL) and could make a run at the AL Cy Young Award this season.
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Cole Ragans (Kansas City Royals - SP)
Player to win the AL Cy Young Award (+1300) at DraftKings Sportsbook
Cole Ragans missed a substantial chunk of the 2025 season with a left groin strain and a rotator cuff strain. Fortunately, Ragans made three starts in September last year, assuaging concerns about his rotator cuff strain by pitching well. In those three starts, Ragans had a 2.77 ERA, 2.36 xERA, 1.98 xFIP, 1.94 SIERA, 0.77 WHIP, 8.3% walk rate, 45.8% strikeout rate, 21.4% swinging-strike rate, 32.0% called-plus-swinging-strike rate, 112 Stuff+, 102 Location+ and 110 Pitching+.
Ragans is also only one season removed from finishing fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting. In 32 starts and 186.1 innings in 2024, Ragans spun a 3.14 ERA, 3.25 xERA, 3.46 xFIP, 3.49 SIERA, 1.14 WHIP, 8.8% walk rate and 29.3% strikeout rate. His ERA was only slightly better than his ERA estimators in a dominant 2024 campaign, and Ragans’ juicy strikeout rate was supported by his 14.4% swinging-strike rate, 28.9% swinging-plus-called-strike rate,110 Stuff+, 99 Location+ and 110 Pitching+.
Ragans has an electrifying arsenal, a sky-high strikeout ceiling and demonstrated the ability to post eye-popping numbers across 180-plus innings in 2024. Ragans has all the makings of being in the mix to win the 2026 AL Cy Young Award, and +1300 odds are inviting to bet at DraftKings Sportsbook.
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