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2020 Pirate Cy Young – Joe Musgrove
With the amount of question marks surrounding the pitching staff for the Pittsburgh Pirates, this was not the easiest of choices. But, the favorite would appear to be the man who will take the ball on Opening Day for the Bucs – Joe Musgrove.
With injuries to Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer, Musgrove enters 2020 as the team’s number one starting pitcher. While Mitch Keller will look to change this during the course of the season, to start the season at least Musgrove is the guy.
Musgrove is coming off a 2019 season in which he set a career high in appearances (32), starts (31), innings pitched (170.1), strikeout rate (21.9%), and 3.3 fWAR. While his 4.44 ERA was not the best, 3.82 FIP painted a better picture. His Deserved Run Average of 3.59 also painted an optimistic picture.
In his final seven starts, Musgrove appeared to be taking a step forward. Leaning on his slider more as you would expect him to do in 2020, he posted a 3.57 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 4.2% walk rate, 25.4% strikeout rate, and allowing just three home runs in 40.1 innings of work.
Has Musgrove started to turn a corner? It looks possible. If he has, he will be the Pirate Cy Young in 2020.