Top 7 active pitchers without a Cy Young

On Wednesday night, two men wore Cy Young crowns for the first time: Corbin Burnes (NL) and Robbie Ray (AL). (I'm not sure there is an actual Cy Young crown, though there should be.) The pair can now say, for the rest of their lives, that they’ve won a Cy Young Award. That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to say.

• 2021 Cy Young winners

It’s also something that many of the best pitchers in baseball can’t say. Because pitchers like Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom have been winning so many Cy Youngs, it has been tough for a lot of great pitchers to break through. They’re still at the top of their games, with years of success already in their portfolio, so there’s still time for them to win one. Right now, though, Burnes and Ray have the bragging rights.

• All-time Cy Young winners

Here are seven extremely accomplished active pitchers who have never won a Cy Young Award and still possibly could. We’ll put them in order from most likely to do so to least likely.

Gerrit Cole, RHP, Yankees

The Yankees certainly imagined Cole would win a Cy Young at some point during the duration of his contract. While he hasn’t gotten there yet, the club surely has no complaints (he did just finish as the runner-up to Ray, after all). Cole is still very much at his peak, and all told, it wouldn’t be that shocking to see him put together a deGrom-like year of dominance soon.

Zack Wheeler, RHP, Phillies

Wheeler just missed his first Cy Young, finishing a close second to Burnes in the NL race. He led the majors in innings pitched (213 1/3), topped the National League in strikeouts (247) and has been a reliable superstar for a team that is renowned for its lack of just that. The former Met seems to have found his true self once he reached his 30s, which should be aspirational for us all. Wheeler was close this year. He might even win it next year.

Yu Darvish, RHP, Padres

Darvish has had his ups and downs, but when he’s on -- like he was with the Cubs and at times with the Rangers -- there are few better pitchers on the planet. While 2021 wasn’t an ideal year, the Padres are an ideal situation for him. If he ever puts it all together at once, San Diego is where it will happen. Darvish has finished second in the Cy Young voting twice, including as recently as 2020, so he’s still got a shot as he enters his age-35 season.

Lance Lynn, RHP, White Sox

Lynn was among the three AL Cy Young finalists this year, and has been in the top six in each of the last three seasons. That’s pretty shocking when you consider it took him almost a decade to reach “ace” status.

Lynn started out as a reliever for the Cardinals -- he was the pitcher Tony La Russa accidentally called for in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series -- before he became an innings eater and then, amazingly, transformed himself into one of the most reliable, fantastic starters in the sport. He took his game to another level over the last three seasons by slashing his walk rate and his homers rate. It sure feels like, with as many innings as he’s going to throw for a good team in 2022, that he’s as good a bet to win 20 games as anyone.

Chris Sale, LHP, Red Sox

Seriously, Chris Sale has never won a Cy Young. (I know, I had to go back and look, too.) He finished in the top six in Cy Young voting every year from 2012-18: Sixth, then fifth, then third, then fourth, then fifth, then second, then fourth. You’d think he’d sneak out a win one of those years.

Injuries have limited Sale ever since, and while he didn’t look truly dominant when he came back for the Red Sox this season, he still wasn’t pleasant for any batter to face. He’s older now -- but not that much older -- and he’ll be even further removed from Tommy John surgery next season. He still has at least three more years in his contract with the Red Sox, a good team that’s going to be counting on him. Don’t be surprised if he looks just like himself again, and soon.

Adam Wainwright, RHP, Cardinals

Here’s another guy you probably thought had already won a Cy Young Award, but he hasn't. In fact, he has more Cy Young “shares” than any player ever who has not won it (Sale is next). Wainwright's old rotation mate Chris Carpenter got one, but Waino never did. He has finished in the top three four times, including second-place finishes in 2010 and 2013. (Roy Halladay beat him the first year, Clayton Kershaw the second.)

Three years ago it would have been absurd to even imagine Wainwright ever being in the conversation for another award, but then he had his 2021 season, which was his best since '14 and had him looking magnificent in the NL Wild Card Game against one of baseball’s best-hitting teams. He has already said he’ll be retiring after the 2022 season. What more fun a way to end a career than a Cy Young?

Craig Kimbrel, RHP, White Sox

Obviously, it’s difficult for a relief pitcher to win a Cy Young Award: No one has won one since Eric Gagne in 2003, and if Mariano Rivera didn’t win one in that time -- he finished second once and third three times -- it’s going to be tough for anyone to, especially in an age of modified bullpen usage. (Particularly when Kimbrel not only isn't the best reliever on his team -- that’s Liam Hendriks -- he’s not even the best closer.)

But Kimbrel has been the second-best reliever, behind Rivera, since Gagne, and he has finished in the top 10 six times. Kimbrel was also perhaps as great as he has ever been for the Cubs last year -- he gave up one home run in 36 2/3 innings and had a 46.7 percent strikeout rate -- before struggling a bit when he headed to the South Side. The point is, it wouldn’t be that surprising to see Kimbrel have a truly monster year during which he racks up a record number of saves and reminds everyone how remarkable it is that he’s still out there more than a decade after breaking into the league with the Braves, outlasting everyone.