Following his dominant performance in the 2025 postseason in which he won the World Series MVP, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is bringing some lofty expectations into the 2026 season. The 27 year old right handed pitcher just completed his first full big league season after injuries shortened his rookie campaign in 2024, and he did not disappoint, leading many to believe he can reach another level in 2026, potentially bringing home some hardware.
MLB writer Anthony Castrovince dropped a “way too early” 2026 award predictions, and included Yoshinobu Yamamoto as his pick to win the National League Cy Young award. It’s often that a player’s previous postseason performance puts unrealistic expectations on them headed into the following season. While the postseason is the brightest stage, the sample size simply isn’t large enough to use as a predictor of future success. However, I don’t believe you even have to look to Yamamoto’s postseason success to feel confident about picking him to win the Cy Young in 2026.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto has proven he can handle the Cy Young workload
In just his first full season Yamamoto earned All-MLB first team honors as well as a third place finish in the NL Cy Young award voting only behind Christopher Sanchez and Paul Skenes. Perhaps the most encouraging part of Yamamoto’s 2025 campaign was the workload he withstood. He delivered 173 and ⅔ innings in the regular season and 37 and ⅓ innings in the postseason (all of which might as well have been high leverage), totaling 210 innings compared to just 90 in 2024.
Due to his elite athleticism, ability to work around traffic, and his wide range of offerings and ability to command them, Yamamoto has proven he can log a lot of effective starts. He made 30 starts for the Dodgers in 2025, 18 of which he threw at least six innings, and in none of those 18 starts did he give up more than three runs. Game logs with those types of numbers is a simple prerequisite to winning the award and Yamamoto obviously does not have an issue in posting those numbers.
In his 30 starts, Yamamoto found himself on plenty of leaderboards. He ranked within the top ten among qualified starters in ERA (2.49), FIP (2.94), WHIP (0.99), K% (29.4), BAA (.182), and fWAR (5.0). There isn’t much reason to believe those numbers are going to regress, so Yamamoto will put himself in good position to be considered for the award again as long as he remains healthy, which he has proven he can do.
Yamamoto finds a lot of his success through his pitch mix that keeps hitters guessing. He threw four different pitches at least 10% of the time last year, and three of those - the four seam, splitter, and curveball - yielded a sub-.200 batting average against. He can land all his offerings in the zone for strikes and whiffs and induces chase outside of the zone as well. Yamamoto demonstrates and executes a nearly perfect gameplan for success as a starter which is why he’s so intriguing as a Cy Young candidate regardless of his short track record of success in MLB.
The 2026 NL Cy Young race will feature familiar faces
Yamamoto has Cy Young stuff and has delivered Cy Young performances on the biggest stage. The biggest obstacle he’ll face is his competition. As long as Paul Skenes continues to remain healthy, he’ll be the favorite to win the award. Entering his third season at just the age of 24, it will be interesting to see if the league can finally find any chinks in his armor.
Christopher Sanchez also has a solid shot at repeating his success from 2025, but outside of Sanchez and Skenes, there aren’t a whole lot of pitchers that immediately jump out as pitchers that will rival Yamamoto for NL Cy Young in 2026. As long as he stays healthy, Yamamoto is a great pick to win the award.