Between Walker Buehler, Cobin Burnes and a handful of others, there are more than a few quality arms in the National League who could make a case for the Cy Young Award this season.
CC Sabathia is going with a name you won’t hear often in that conversation.
After a season and a half with the New York Mets, Stroman is now on his third big league team, with the 30-year-old joining the Chicago Cubs this offseason on a three-year, $71 million contract. He’s expected to be a No. 2 starter for a Cubs team that started a rebuild last season but plays in a division with two of the likely worst teams in the league.
And if things go right for Stroman in his first year at Wrigley, Sabathia, who won the American League Cy Young in 2007, thinks he could be the Cy Young winner in the N.L.
"You know who I think could win the Cy Young in the National League? Stroman," Sabathia said on his "R2C2" podcast. "If he can stay healthy. If Stroman can make a season full of starts, I think he will be up there for the Cy Young in the National League.”
Sabathia went chalk in the American League, rolling with New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.
Despite some solid years with the Toronto Blue Jays, Stroman has never really been on the Cy Young radar before. He finished in eighth place in the American League Cy Young voting in 2017, but otherwise he has not popped up on a ballot.
Perhaps this will be the year those fortunes change.
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