Indians: Ranking all Tribe Cy Young winners from 2007 and on
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Indians have had four pitchers since 2007 win five Cy Youngs and we’re going to rank each of them for you!
The Cleveland Indians have been one of baseball’s most consistent producers of talent in the last twenty years. Their key export though, pitching. They’re not just known for their Cy Young winners, though they’ve had four, winning five different awards, they’re known for their ability to create, cultivate, and at times rejuvenate pitching careers.
There have been the aces that the team has loved and lost. Your C. C. Sabathia’s, Cliff Lee’s, Bartolo Colon’s, and your Corey Kluber’s (all Cy Young winners by the way). There have been your rejuvenation projects; your Kevin Millwood, Scott Kazmir, Oliver Perez, and Ubaldo Jimenez types. Of course, the Indians have produced some great relievers like Cody Allen, Chris Perez, and Joe Smith types. There’s even your unsung heroes, your Justin Masterson, Danny Salazar, Josh Tomlin types.
The Indians, at least since the end of the Jacobs era, have been known for their pitching. This is rather ironic, considering the Indians of the ’90s rarely had pitching and often traded away their better, young players for relievers.
An annoying practice that continues to this day.
That isn’t to say those ’90s squads didn’t have any talent but when Charles Nagy, a man with a 4.51 ERA is your Ace, you know you’re struggling. The team did have a young Colon and young Ace-in-the-making Jarrett Wright but that was a disaster waiting to happen.
So looking at the last 13 years, it’s good to take stock of how far the organization has come. These Cleveland Indians are always able to put out a competitive product and it starts with scouting and ends during the award season.
These are all four Cy Young winners ranked.