With the 2024 MLB regular season right around the corner, the pitching landscape has changed. Some of the best starting pitchers in the game will be sidelined due to injury, while a younger generation of aces who rarely go more than six or seven innings are set to star in this reliever-specialized era. Four all-time greats and future Hall of Famers who have combined to win 11 Cy Young Awards will start the season on the injured list in the Texas Rangers' Max Scherzer (three Cy Youngs) and Jacob deGrom (two), the Houston Astros' Justin Verlander (three) and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw (three). 

Scherzer, deGrom and Kershaw may not pitch until after the All-Star break with all three coming off major surgeries, and Scherzer and Kershaw are near the end of their careers. Verlander is the oldest of the four at age 41 and this might be his final season, but he won't miss too much time early. He and Kershaw are the last pure pitchers to win MVP (so not counting Shohei Ohtani) with Verlander taking the AL trophy in 2011 and Kershaw in 2017. Don't bother taking a starting pitcher to win MVP going forward. It has become a hitters' award, just like NFL MVP is a quarterback's award. 

I wouldn't have picked any of those players to lead the majors in any pitching category this season but might have considered the New York Yankees' Gerrit Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young winner, leading in strikeouts and/or wins. He's off my board now, as he'll miss the first month or two of the season with an elbow injury.

And as I write this, reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell still doesn't even have a team in free agency. He was MLB's ERA leader in 2023 among starting pitchers. I'm not interested in any Snell MLB leader props, either, as I fully expect regression wherever he goes. The southpaw walks too many batters. 

Before you make any bets on who leads MLB in the major pitching categories this season, you need to see who SportsLine expert Matt Severance is backing. Severance is a well-connected writer and high-volume handicapper who has worked in the industry since 2005. After joining SportsLine, Matt quickly established himself as a top expert in multiple sports. He's up +1969 on his MLB plays on SportsLine. Anybody following him has seen HUGE returns!

Now Severance has shared his 2024 MLB pitching leaders picks. Be sure to see who he's backing before locking in any picks of your own.

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