Corey Kluber Completes Meteoric Rise with Surprising AL Cy Young Win

In the immediate aftermath of Corey Kluber winning the American League Cy Young—the first after-season award outcome that might be viewed as a surprise, albeit far from a shock—much of the focus is on the fact that the Cleveland Indians right-hander beat out presumed favorite and former winner Felix Hernandez.

Wednesday evening's announcement feels like an upset primarily because Hernandez, the Seattle Mariners righty and 2010 Cy Young honoree, is the well-known, big-name star who has been among the best pitchers in Major League Baseball for darn near a decade now.

As for Kluber? He was seen as the little-known, under-the-radar arm who came from out of nowhere to dare challenge the King.

Sure, that's the broad narrative here, but in many ways, it's true. Kluber's Cy Young win essentially completes what has been a meteoric rise from obscurity to dominance for a pitcher not many had even heard of before the 2014 season began.

After all, Kluber is something of a late-bloomer, having been born exactly two days after Hernandez, who just completed his 10th major league season as a 28-year-old.

For Kluber, on the other hand, this year marked his first as a full-time starter (though he made 24 starts in 2013). Seriously.

While Hernandez has made 303 starts in his career, Kluber is up to—count 'em—70.

That shows just how quickly Kluber became so great to beat Hernandez by all of 10 points, 169 to 159, according to the Baseball Writers Association of America.

To that end, Kluber didn't even win this award so much for a breakout season as he did for an absolutely brilliant half.

Following a very good but not quite standout first half in which he posted a 3.01 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings over 20 starts, Kluber turned it up a notch or two post-All-Star break: 1.73 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 11.0 K/9 across 14 outings.

That was the best second act among all pitchers.

Just prior to being announced as the winner, Kluber was asked on the MLB Network broadcast what his reaction would have been if he was told back in spring training that he'd be one of the three finalists for the AL Cy Young Award.

"I would have checked to make sure you were talking to the right guy," Kluber said, his dry wit seeping ever so slightly through his unflinching, matter-of-fact demeanor.

But there's no need to check to make sure the voters got it right. Really, the honor easily could have gone to either Kluber or Hernandez—it's just more of a surprise that it went to the former, given the circumstances and reputations.

It's not like Hernandez was favored simply because of his name and history. This is an ace who topped the AL in both ERA (2.14) and WHIP (0.92).

In the end, though, it didn't matter that Kluber had never before received even a single Cy Young vote or that he was going up against Hernandez.

What did? That Kluber transformed from who's-that to that's-who right before our eyes.

Ultimately, rather than concern ourselves over whether Hernandez should be putting a second Cy on his mantel, let's appreciate that both pitchers were deserving.

And let's recognize that Kluber very much earned the honor by ascending from anonymity to award winner in the span of 34 starts—the final 14 of which were particularly and utterly dominant—over but a single season.

With his breakout, Cy Young-winning 2014 behind him now, the next step for Kluber is to prove that he was not only the worthy pick but also the right one.

That means maintaining this level of performance, or at least close to it, going forward. Like Hernandez has.

That means more 200-inning seasons and pitching at the top of an Indians rotation that led MLB in strikeouts and features upstarts Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar. That's a group that is a lot like Kluber—little-known and under the radar.

Well, until now.

Statistics are accurate through the 2014 season and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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