AL Cy Young Futures Value Pick: Shane McClanahan a Solid Selection

In our value series, we will bring you one pick worth making a play on for each Major League Baseball end-of-season award. We kick things off by toeing the rubber.

The Tampa Bay Rays have produced some of the best pitchers in the majors for years. Since 2012, two Rays pitchers have won the American League Cy Young award, and countless more have become some of the most reliable arms in the league.

Where does the Rays’ ace rank on our top 10 SP list?

Shane McClanahan is carrying on the tradition of throwing smoke in a Rays jersey, and he could become the third starter in Rays’ history to take home the best pitcher award.

The former first-round draft pick is entering his third season in the bigs. McClanahan’s first two were incredibly productive. He burst onto the scene with a 10-6 record and 3.43 ERA in his MLB freshman season, finishing seventh in Rookie of the Year voting.

The southpaw followed that with another dominant campaign, improving virtually every metric. McClanahan compiled 12 wins and a 2.54 ERA en route to his first All-Star appearance. More impressively, he started for the AL in the mid-summer classic, validating his exceptional start to the season.

At face value, his traditional stats were a compelling component of his sixth-place finish in last year’s Cy Young voting. However, McClanahan pulls away from the field with some of his underlying metrics.

The Rays’ ace has decreased his walks per nine innings while improving his strikeouts per nine each season. Additionally, his WHIP plummeted to 0.93 in 2022, with his ERA+ soaring to 143. He also succeeded with advanced analytics, posting a modest .332 expected slugging percentage and a .248 weighted on-base average, ranking in the top 8% of MLB hurlers. 

The departure of Justin Verlander has opened things up in the AL, and surely McClanahan will be in the mix to take up the mantle. The 25-year-old is in the next generation of up-and-comers, improving his standing year over year. 

We’re betting that the upward trend continues, and at +1200 or better, we are backing McClanahan to take home the Cy Young.

Top 5 AL Cy Young Candidates Odds on FanDuel Sportsbook.