Editor’s note: This bonus piece is part of our coverage of the first quarter of the MLB season. To read our main story, What We’ve Learned from the First 40 Games in 2026, click or tap here. Nobody will cast a Cy Young Award vote for another four and a half months. But it’s never too soon to ask, just for fun:If the NL Cy Young votes were due today, would you vote for …Paul Skenes — a certifiable pitching monster who … has a 1.98 ERA this season … has a 1.09 ERA since coughing up five earned runs in his first inning of 2026 … and is on a mission to become the first man to have a sub-2.00 ERA in three straight seasons since (take a deep breath now) Grover Cleveland Alexander (in 1915-16-17)?Shohei Ohtani — the same superhuman who bashed 55 homers last year now has transformed into a being who … apparently woke up one morning last winter and decided to go all Cy Young or bust on us … and still has an ERA under 1.00 (0.82) … while allowing fewer runs all season (six — just four earned) than he once drove in in one game?Jacob Misiorowski — another freak of nature who … has launched almost as many fastballs at 100 mph or swifter just in his last four starts (143) as every other starter in MLB combined has thrown all season (144) … and is also on pace to roll up the greatest strikeout ratio (14.1 strikeouts per nine innings) of any starter in history (assuming he tops 100 innings)?Mason Miller — the official Most Unhittable Pitcher Who Ever Lived (we already proved that!) … a dude who has faced 72 hitters this year and struck out 40 of them … and whose numbers since last Sept. 1 are so out-and-out hilarious (84 strikeouts, nine hits — if we count the World Baseball Classic and 2025 postseason), he could realistically be the first reliever to win a Cy Young since Eric Gagne in 2003?Apologies to Chris Sale and Cristopher Sánchez for leaving them off that list, but this race is shaping up to be that epic. So who is the “right” choice here? Our distinguished panel — a half-dozen of the most insightful front-office minds we know — had some thoughts.It has to be Ohtani because … “he just decided: ‘This year, I’m going to win the Cy Young.’ And now it’s remarkable to watch him just go out and do it, start after start. Oh, and he’s throwing 101 (mph) now.”It has to be Miller because … “that inning he pitches is the nastiest inning in baseball history” … and if you’re a reliever trying to win the Cy Young, “this is what you have to do. You have to break the scale on how dominant a reliever can be. And he’s doing it.”It has to be the Miz because … “the stuff is just amazing. The Miz is blowing up the china shop.”But of course it will be Skenes because … he’s Paul Freaking Skenes and … “he’s just a freak for 32 starts. So now we’re gonna find out: How much freak level has this guy got?”