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Kansas City Royals Ace Cole Ragans Has 2025 Cy Young Odds Revealed

After an All-Star season in 2024, what will Ragans do for an encore?

Brady Farkas

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans (55) delivers a pitch agains the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium on Sept 6.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans (55) delivers a pitch agains the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium on Sept 6. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
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According to Fanduel Sportsbook, Kansas City Royals ace Cole Ragans has the third-best odds in the American League to win the Cy Young, behind only Tarik Skubal (DET) and Garrett Crochet (BOS).

The odds for Ragans are listed at +850, meaning that if you bet $100, you would turn an $850 profit if Ragans were to win.

The 27-year-old Ragans established himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball during the 2024 campaign, helping lead the Royals back to the playoffs. Kansas City beat the Baltimore Orioles in the wild card series and advanced to the ALDS, where they lost to the New York Yankees.

For the year, Ragans finished at 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA. One of the top strikeout artists in the game, he struck out 223 batters in 186.1 innings. He led the American League in strikeouts/nine innings and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting. He also made his first All-Star Game.

A former first-round pick of the Texas Rangers in the 2016 draft, Ragans was traded to the Royals during the 2023 campaign in the deal that sent Aroldis Chapman to Texas.

Lifetime, he's 18-17 with a 3.46 ERA. Ragans pairs with Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo to make up the nucleus of the Royals starting rotation, and Kris Bubic figures to join the fray as well this year.

The Royals finished second in the American League Central last season but will undoubtedly have bigger goals in 2024. They've brought in infielder Jonathan India via trade so far this offseason.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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