NL Cy Young Odds: Zac Gallen Making Strong Push to Pass Sandy Alcantara in NL CY Young Race

NL Cy Young Odds: Zac Gallen Making Strong Push to Pass Sandy Alcantara in NL CY Young Race

Just a few weeks ago, it was a foregone conclusion that Sandy Alcantara would win the NL Cy Young Award for the 2022 season. But over the last three weeks, Alcantara has started to stumble while some pitchers like Zac Gallen are having historic runs. Can Alcantara hang on? Oddsmakers are starting to have doubts.

NL Cy Young Odds

Zac Gallen NL Cy Young Odds (+700) (Bet $100 to Win $700)

Rewind the calendar just one month ago and Zac Gallen was nowhere near the top of the list in oddsmakers' eyes for the NL Cy Young award. The closest challengers to Alcantara were Max Fried and Corbin Burnes. But since that time, Zac Gallen has put together a streak of 41 1/3 scoreless innings, now just 18 innings short of Orel Hershiser's all-time record. MLB.com noted that it is already the eighth-longest streak in history, and with one more scoreless start, he could jump into third place of all time.

That historic run has put him squarely into the Cy Young conversation as Gallen quickly gains on Alcantara. Both pitchers likely have 3-4 more starts left to make their case, but could the strongest finish to a season ever sway voters to select Gallen when Alcantara had such season-long sustained success? That reality now seems especially likely. Gallen's shiny numbers this year (2.42 ERA and 11-2 record) also significantly help his case, although he is currently more than 40 innings pitched than Alcantara. More quality or more quantity? That's the question for Cy Young voters.

Sandy Alcantara NL Cy Young Odds (-175) (Bet $175 to Win $100)

Just three short weeks ago, Sandy Alcantara sat at -350 odds to win the NL Cy Young Award for 2022. His ERA was under 2.25 and he was on pace for an innings total that had not been reached in more than 15 years. He still is going to cruise past 220 innings this year, and the ERA looks good at 2.43, but the past few weeks have put a large speed bump on Alcantara's fast track to the Cy Young.

In the past two weeks plus, Alcantara's ERA is just a mediocre 4.50 and his pitching WAR is a flat 0.0, which ranks 55th among 71 qualified pitchers. The home runs have been the major problem as they have jumped up to 2.25 per nine innings in that span. Playing on a team that is floundering instead of the Diamondbacks who are surging also is a negative mark on Alcantara's case. He has a long head start against Gallen or Corbin Burnes or Julio Urias or any other contender, but Gallen especially is closing in, which makes the value at -175 look small by comparison.

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