Indians: Ranking all Tribe Cy Young winners from 2007 and on

2014 – Corey Kluber

’14 Stats: 18-9, 2.44 ERA, 3 CG, 235.2 IP, 269 Ks, 51 BB

’17 Stats: 18-4, 2.24 ERA, 5 CG, 203.2 IP, 265 Ks, 35 BB

Total: 36-13, 2.34 ERA, 8 CG, 439.1 IP, 534 Ks, 86

This isn’t even a bold claim, Corey Kluber was super dominant for the Indians. He was a two-time Cy Young winner, a four-time Cy Young finalist, and frankly, he should’ve been a four-time Cy Young winner. There was no denying his abilities. While some will lament that he couldn’t get the team over the hump in 2016, when the Indians had that 3-1 advantage over the Cubs, and others will claim the Indians traded him too late, frankly that’s all nonsense. A player and a team aren’t just defined by a World Series. That’s narrow-minded, myopic thinking. It’s a sign that you don’t know how to appreciate what you have. There are 29 teams that won’t win it all every year, but that doesn’t mean that a team’s season was a failure just because it didn’t win a World Series.

Watching Corey Kluber come out of obscurity as a middling prospect, and have five of the best pitching seasons the Indians have ever seen will be a memory that will last me a long time. Championships are nice, but we fans thrive off of memories. Kluber was a memory maker and his nightly outings, his stone-cold face as he drubbed out hitter after hitter, and his teammates dubbing him the King of the North will forever make Kluber’s two Cy Young wins mean so much more than they really should.

Kluber was a true Ace, here’s hoping Bieber can live up to that.