Does the NL have the most loaded Cy Young field of all time?

This year's National League Cy Young field isn't just loaded with worthy contenders -- it's shaping up to be the deepest race either league has ever seen.

While the American League has a clear frontrunner in the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler, the NL has an abundance of pitchers putting up extraordinary seasons.

In fact, entering Thursday, six NL pitchers had thrown at least 50 innings with a sub-2.00 ERA while striking out more than a batter per inning.

From 1967, when the Cy Young was first awarded to a pitcher from each league, through 2025, there was never a year when one league had that many pitchers meet those benchmarks through a comparable point in the season. (MLB teams, on average, have played 56 games in 2026.)

And that doesn’t even cover every pitcher in the mix. To understand just how deep this field is, consider what each of these contenders has done through the first two months of the season.

All stats below are through Wednesday.

• Two new faces surge to the top of latest Cy Young poll

Last year’s NL runner-up hasn’t given up a run in four weeks

Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez allowed a pair of runs in the first inning on April 30. Since then? Nada. The left-hander has thrown 44 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings and counting, eclipsing a Phillies record that had stood for 115 years. He's 14 1/3 innings away from tying Orel Hershiser’s single-season MLB record of 59 scoreless innings in a row.

After placing second in the NL Cy Young Award race last season with a 2.50 ERA and 212 strikeouts over 202 innings, Sánchez has managed to unlock another level in 2026. He leads all qualifiers in ERA (1.47), FIP (1.81) and has the third-most WAR (3.3, per FanGraphs) of any player.

Two-way superstar, sub-1.00 ERA

Shohei Ohtani made a strong return to the mound last season after spending 2024 solely as a DH, but the Dodgers were careful not to overwork his surgically repaired right arm. This season, though, Ohtani has been fully unleashed as a pitcher, and he’s been simply magnificent.

After throwing six innings of no-hit ball against the Rockies on Wednesday, Ohtani owns a 0.82 ERA with a .147 opponents’ batting average over 55 innings in 2026. Excluding openers, that's tied for the fourth-lowest ERA a pitcher has recorded through nine starts since earned runs became official in 1913. Ohtani doesn’t have enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, but there are no such requirements for Cy Young consideration.

Baseball’s hardest-throwing starter has 300 K’s in his sights

It seems like Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski has been setting some new velocity record every time he takes the mound. Facing the Cardinals his last time out, he touched triple-digits 57 times, 10 more than any other pitcher since the pitch tracking era began in 2008. He also recorded the fastest strikeout (103.4 mph) by a starting pitcher in that timeframe, breaking his own mark of 103.3 mph set on May 8.

Misiorowski tied a career high with 12 strikeouts against St. Louis, reaching double figures for the third time in four starts and becoming the first pitcher to notch 100 K’s this season. The lanky righty has struck out more than 40% of the batters he’s faced and has a chance to become the first pitcher to reach the 300-strikeout plateau since Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander did it in 2019. He has a 1.83 ERA to boot, including a 0.29 ERA in May.

The 2024 NL winner is off to an even stronger start than his Cy Young year

In a normal year, Braves left-hander Chris Sale would be leading this race with a 1.89 ERA, 72 K’s and a .181 opponents’ batting average over 10 starts.

Heck, those are better numbers, by and large, than Sale had through 10 starts two years ago, when he won the NL pitching Triple Crown and captured the first Cy Young Award of his career. Right now, though, he probably wouldn’t even be an NL finalist.

Don’t forget about these guys

Misiorowski isn’t the only Brewers starter in Cy Young contention. There’s also Kyle Harrison, Milwaukee’s latest pitching success story. A former top prospect on his third team, Harrison had a 4.39 ERA in 42 games (37 starts) for the Giants and Red Sox from 2023-25 but has blossomed into a dominant force with the Crew.

The 24-year-old left-hander has thrown 18 scoreless innings over his past three starts to lower his ERA to 1.57 with 61 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings this season.

It speaks to the depth of the field that the Reds' Chase Burns, a 23-year-old former No. 2 overall Draft pick with electric stuff, has barely registered in the NL Cy Young conversation so far.

Burns possesses elite velocity and has struck out 50 batters with his slider, the most any pitcher has recorded on a single breaking pitch in 2026. He has a 1.19 ERA in May and a 1.96 ERA over 64 1/3 innings on the year.

We'll also give a nod to the Phillies' Zack Wheeler, who has returned from thoracic outlet decompression surgery looking as good as ever. Missing a month of action to start 2026 won't do Wheeler any favors in the Cy Young voting, but he could make things interesting if he keeps pitching as well as he has through six starts (1.67 ERA).

Miller's remarkable dominance in relief

No reliever has won the Cy Young Award since Eric Gagne in 2003, and with so many worthy starters around the NL this year, that drought is poised to continue.

Still, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Padres closer Mason Miller, who is on track to post one of the most dominant seasons by a reliever in MLB history. He's currently 16-for-16 in save chances with a 0.76 ERA, a 0.24 FIP and a 52.2% strikeout rate.

What about Skenes?

There's also the small matter of the reigning NL Cy Young winner, Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes. By the otherworldly standards he set over his first two seasons, Skenes' 2026 has been a disappointment. He's given up nine earned runs in his past two starts, causing his ERA to jump to 3.00.

At the same time, Skenes leads all qualifiers in WHIP (0.82) and K/BB ratio (7.22) and has the third-best expected ERA (2.40) of anyone who has faced at least 200 batters this season. No one is going to be surprised if he's back at the head of the line a month from now.