Can Corey Kluber Win a Second Cy Young?

After his latest gem against the White Sox on Tuesday night, Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber has put himself squarely in the American League Cy Young conversation. What are his chances of taking home the hardware for a second time?

It’s all about the routine. As the Cleveland Indians enter the home stretch of the 2016 regular season, off days are few and far between. The Tribe, in first place by six games over the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central with a 68-50 record, is in the midst of a 21 games in 21 days stretch, and has just two days off remaining on the calendar the rest of the season.

But for the ace of the Tribe’s starting rotation, being able to take the ball every five days with consistency is welcome, and could help explain why he’s been so dominant of late.

Corey Kluber has been down this road before, claiming the AL Cy Young award in 2014 after putting up a 2.44 earned run average, an ERA+ of 160, a 2.35 FIP, and a 5.3 bWAR for a Cleveland team that missed the second wild card spot in the standings by just three games. Over the course of the past month and a half, as noted by Zach Meisel of cleveland.com, he has been regaining that form and putting himself right in the thick of this year’s Cy discussion.

As we pointed out yesterday here at Wahoo’s on First, Kluber has been masterful since the all-star break. In his last seven starts Kluber has a 1.65 ERA, a 0.98 WHIP and yielded just a .213 opponents’ average in 49 innings of work, with 49 punchouts to 11 free passes.

For the season, the right-hander ranks 8th in the AL in ERA (3.15), 6th in ERA+ (149), 1st in FIP (3.01), 4th in strikeouts (163), 3rd in innings pitched (163.0), 7th in strikeouts per nine innings (9.0), 3rd in WHIP (1.025), and 4th in bWAR (4.3). Despite a crowded field, Kluber is making a strong case to become a two-time Cy Young winner, and has the Indians official Twitter account wondering out loud about what could be.

Among the competition Kluber is facing are Detroit rookie phenom Michael Fullmer, Chicago’s left-handed duo of Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, Cole Hamels of the Texas Rangers, and Baltimore Orioles closer Zach Britton, all of whom can also make strong cases for the award. Britton in particular is an interesting candidate as he vies to join just a handful of relievers to have received the honor. The lefty has a 0.54 ERA, an astronomical 825 ERA+, an FIP of 2.00, a 0.82 WHIP, and nearly 11 strikeouts per nine innings.

Next: How the Indians have replaced Michael Brantley

Of course, whether he wins an award or not, Kluber’s recent run of dominance has been vitally important to the Indians as they attempt to win their first division title since 2007. His continued consistency anchoring one of the best starting staffs in the big leagues every fifth day could well determine whether the club is playing meaningful games in mid-October.