Indians' Carlos Carrasco Shows Why He Is Primed to Be Sleeper AL Cy Young Pick

Fresh off signing a four-year contract extension Tuesday, Carlos Carrasco went out for his first start of 2015 on Wednesday and picked up right where he left off last year.

The 28-year-old right-hander, who will be in Cleveland through at least 2018 after inking for $22 million, dominated the Houston Astros, requiring just 88 pitches (60 strikes) to rack up 10 strikeouts in 6.1 innings to earn the win in a 2-0 victory.

Yes, it's only one game, so let's not get too excited, but Carrasco showed why he's primed to be a sleeper pick for the American League Cy Young Award, which rotation-mate Corey Kluber won—more or less out of nowhere—in 2014.

Carrasco's transformation from enigmatic, inconsistent arm who shuffled between starting and relieving the past few years to electric, shutdown starter began in earnest during the second half last season, when he arguably was the best pitcher in baseball.

As a refresher, here are Carrasco's digits in his final 10 starts from Aug. 10 on in 2014, which is when he rejoined the five-man after everything started to click in the bullpen: 1.30 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 78 strikeouts in 69.0 innings.

To put the above into better context, no pitcher had a lower ERA than Carrasco's 1.72 mark in the second half. (It is, however, fun to point out that Kluber's 1.73 ERA was second-best.)

Tack on his first outing of 2015 and, well, just marvel at all the pretty numbers, courtesy of NBCSports.com's Drew Silva:

Those totals date back to last April 30 or the point when the Indians demoted Carrasco to a long-man role out of the bullpen. That's about the point when Mickey Callaway, Cleveland's pitching coach, began to work the same magic with Carrasco that he has with Ubaldo Jimenez and Corey Kluber.

The point is, Callaway has become something of a pitcher whisperer who has shown a knack for elevating at least one starter's performance each season. In 2015, that could be Carrasco.

Armed with a mid-90s fastball, wicked slider and dive-bombing changeup, Carrasco always has had enticing stuff and intriguing talent, going back to his time as a top prospect with the Philadelphia Phillies organization before coming to Cleveland in the Cliff Lee deal in July 2009. It just took a while to put everything together, both physically and mentally.

"When he went to the bullpen [last year]," Indians skipper Terry Francona said, per MLB.com, "he learned a routine; he gained some confidence. And now as a starter, he takes that routine with him."

Part of that routine? Carrasco has simplified things by scrapping the windup and pitching only out of the stretch.

Granted, Carrasco's latest masterpiece came against the contact-challenged Astros, who feature whiff-prone hitters such as Chris Carter, George Springer, Colby Rasmus and Evan Gattis and, as such, appear to be a threat to approach the record for team strikeouts in a single season, which they just so happened to set in 2013.

But if Carrasco's brilliant late-career turnaround under Callaway's tutelage isn't enough to get you on board with his legitimate candidacy for the AL Cy Young, consider that there are fewer elite arms in the AL this season compared to last.

Yes, Felix Hernandez, David Price and Chris Sale join Kluber as the justifiable favorites. But the field has lost Max Scherzer—the 2013 winner—as well as Jon Lester and James Shields, all of whom migrated to the NL this offseason.

In other words, the path isn't quite as full of obstacles as it was a year ago when Kluber pulled off his ascension.

"The last two years, I've grown a lot," Carrasco said in an interview after signing his new contract, via MLB.com. "Especially last year, when [the Indians] gave me the opportunity to start in the rotation, sent me to the bullpen and then gave me one more opportunity. ... They asked, and I was ready for it."

Now comes Carrasco's chance not only to make good on his half-season breakout but also to prove that he's no longer the mercurial pitcher who sported a 5.29 ERA entering last year.

Doing that also will reward the Indians, who showed faith in Carrasco and ponied up to keep him around. As Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan points out, it was quite the score:

And if Carrasco can keep it up, maybe Cleveland will have a shot at becoming the first team to churn out different Cy Young Award winners in consecutive seasons since—that's right—CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee did so for the Indians in 2007-08.

Statistics are accurate through Wednesday, April 8, and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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