I started putting together a list of dark horse Cy Young candidates back in 2015 when I was writing for a different site. The topic was assigned to me by my editor, and since then, it’s been a little pet project of mine. When I pick dark horses, I usually go pretty dark. It’s more fun that way.
I only have two requirements when picking my candidates:
- They haven’t won the Cy Young award in the past
- They haven’t received a single Cy Young vote in the past three years
2015
| Player | Cy Young vote points | Cy Young finish |
|---|---|---|
| Jose Quintana | 0 | — |
| Mike Fiers | 0 | — |
| Jake Arrieta | 169 | 1st |
| Dallas Keuchel | 186 | 1st |
| Garrett Richards | 0 | — |
2016
| Player | Cy Young vote points | Cy Young finish |
|---|---|---|
| Carlos Martinez | 0 | — |
| Julio Teheran | 0 | — |
| Carlos Rodon | 0 | — |
| Yordano Ventura | 0 | — |
| Kyle Gibson | 0 | — |
2017
| Player | Cy Young vote points | Cy Young finish |
|---|---|---|
| Kevin Gausman | 0 | — |
| Michael Pineda | 0 | — |
| Robbie Ray | 6 | 7th |
| Eduardo Rodriguez | 0 | — |
| Aaron Nola | 0 | — |
2018
| Player | Cy Young vote points | Cy Young finish |
|---|---|---|
| Zack Godley | 0 | — |
| Luis Castillo | 0 | — |
| Kenta Maeda | 0 | — |
| Jeff Samardzija | 0 | — |
| Andrew Heaney | 0 | — |
2019
| Player | Cy Young Vote Points | Cy Young Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Collin McHugh | 0 | — |
| Jameson Taillon | 0 | — |
| German Marquez | 0 | — |
| Jose Berrios | 0 | — |
| Nick Pivetta | 0 | — |
2020
| Player | Cy Young Vote Points | Cy Young Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Brandon Woodruff | 0 | — |
| Max Fried | 15 | 5th |
| Dinelson Lamet | 57 | 4th |
| Matthew Boyd | 0 | — |
| Chris Paddack | 0 | — |
The First Out At Third 