AL Cy Young best bets: Cease on verge of breaking into MLB's elite

After running through the preseason odds to win the AL Cy Young award, we're identifying our favorite bets to make with the MLB season closing in.

Unlike the NL Cy Young market - which is Jacob deGrom's to lose - the AL race appears wide open a year after Robbie Ray came out of nowhere to cash as a preseason long shot. Here are the odds to win the 2022 AL Cy Young at Barstool Sports and our best bets to cash:

Dylan Cease, White Sox (+900)

This isn't as much an endorsement of the price - you can get as high as 20-1 at some shops - as it is of the player. If you've followed our MLB preseason futures articles, you know how high we are on Cease to finally break into MLB's elite tier in 2022.

The former top prospect has long had the stuff to succeed at the MLB level, but he was downright unhittable in 2021, ranking fifth in strikeout rate (31.9%) and second in contact rate overall (68.3%) and in the strike zone (78.5%). He also boasted the eighth-best soft contact rate (19%) and ranked ninth in CSW (30.3%), a catch-all metric that measures overall effectiveness at throwing strikes.

The issue was his command. While his walk rate dipped to a career-low 9.6%, he still issued far too many free passes, and batters swung at just 46.7% of his pitches - ninth-lowest in the bigs. If the hard-throwing White Sox righty can continue to rein in his free passes, he could be in for a Ray-like breakout campaign.

Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays (+1600)

The Blue Jays helped produce a Cy Young winner a year ago. Why not make it two years in a row? That's a real possibility after Toronto inked Gausman to a five-year deal this winter following his breakout campaign with the Giants.

If it weren't for the brilliant trio atop the NL pitching ranks a year ago, Gausman's Cy Young-worthy stat line would have garnered more attention after he posted a 2.81 ERA over 192 innings to finish sixth in voting. His consistency was key - he held opponents to two or fewer runs in 24 of 33 starts and logged at least 15 swinging strikes in nearly half his starts.

Gausman's incredible 15.3% swinging strike rate - fourth-best in MLB - was thanks in large part to increased use of his devastating splitter, which induced a 45.9% whiff rate and was responsible for 138 of his 227 strikeouts in 2021. We saw Ray hone in on his wipeout slider after joining the Blue Jays - if Gausman emphasizes his 1-2 punch in Toronto, he could follow a similar path.

John Means, Orioles (+5000)

The John Means hype train had a real moment in 2021 when he entered June with a 2.05 ERA and AL-best 0.80 WHIP before a shoulder injury knocked him off the bump. He wasn't the same pitcher from that point, surrendering a 4.88 ERA over his final 14 starts for the Orioles.

Sure, there was a bit of luck to his hot start - he stranded 98.6% of base runners before the injury and posted one of MLB's lowest BABIPs (.188) - but he also showed legitimate Cy Young potential behind his filthy changeup, which generated at least five whiffs in eight of his first nine starts.

He rode that changeup to a no-hitter against the Mariners, and it'll be a key element to his repertoire in 2022. That fastball-changeup combination is enough to put Means on the map, and he's developed his curveball as a usable third pitch. If it's even passable, it could be enough to fuel the hype train once again.

Other notable bets: Nathan Eovaldi (+2200), Noah Syndergaard (+5000)

C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at cjackson.cowart@thescore.com.