New York Yankees Starter Cole Once Again Contending for Cy Young

Just two months into the season Gerrit Cole has already jumped into the Top 5 of one Cy Young poll.

John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees starter Gerrit Cole hasn’t won a Cy Young yet, but he’s been close and a recent MLB.com poll of 49 experts believes he’s close again after two months of the season.

Cole finished third in this round of voting, in which experts voted in the same manner that voters for the Cy Young Award will vote at the end of the season — a 5-4-3-2-1 scale format, with five points for a first-place vote, etc.

Cole had six first-place votes in the poll.

He’s been close to this award before. Last year, Cole finished ninth in Cy Young voting in the American League. He’s finished in the top 10 in voting six times, with his closest brush coming in 2019 with Houston, where he finished in second place after a 20-5 season with an AL-leading 2.50 ERA.

Thus far, Cole has been perfect — 7-0 in 13 starts this season with a 2.82 ERA. He’s struck out 84 and walked 28. He recently cleared 2,000 strikeouts for his MLB career.

The leader in the poll was Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan, who received 29 first-place votes. He was followed by Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi, who received six first-place votes. Houston starter Framber Valdez was fourth and Minnesota’s Sonny Gray was fifth. Everyone in the Top 5 received at least one first-place vote.