This one is easy: Zach Britton should win AL Cy Young Award

At some point, and maybe it's going to take a while, the talk concerning Orioles closer Zach Britton will shift from not pitching in the wild card game to whether he will win the American League Cy Young Award.

Britton should certainly be on the short list and I think his resume is clearly strong enough to win it. If he does get the Cy Young, it will be the seventh time the award has been won by an Oriole:

1969 - Mike Cuellar (shared with Denny McLain)
1973, 1975, 1976 - Jim Palmer
1979 - Mike Flanagan
1980 - Steve Stone

Britton recorded 47 consecutive saves this season, going 47-for-47. According to STATS, LLC, Britton has the longest save streak in as many chances to start a season by a left-handed pitcher in major league history and ranks third all-time. Britton led the AL and tied for second in the majors in saves. His 0.54 ERA (just four earned runs allowed over 67 innings) led major league relievers and was the lowest in big league history among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other pitchers in major league history have had an ERA below 1.00 in a season with at least 40 saves: Dennis Eckersley in 1990 (0.61, 48 saves) and Fernando Rodney in 2012 (0.60, 48 saves).

It has been said that Britton's 2016 season is better than any single year the great Mariano Rivera of the Yankees ever had. Rivera finished in the top five of the Cy Young voting five times, finishing second in 2005, third in 1996, 1999 and 2004, and fifth in 2008. Here is a look at Rivera's numbers from those years and Britton's 2016 season.

Rivera in 1996: 8-3 with 2.09 ERA, five saves, 0.994 WHIP, 6.1 hits/9, 10.9 K/9
Rivera in 1999: 4-3 with 1.83 ERA, 45 saves, 0.884 WHIP, 5.6 hits/9, 6.8 K/9
Rivera in 2004: 4-2 with 1.94 ERA, 53 saves, 1.081 WHIP, 7.4 hits/9, 7.6 K/9
Rivera in 2005: 7-4 with 1.38 ERA, 43 saves, 0.868 WHIP, 5.7 hits/9, 9.2 K/9
Rivera in 2008: 6-5 with 1.40 ERA, 39 saves, 0.665 WHIP, 5.2 hits/9, 9.9 K/9
Britton in 2016: 2-1 with 0.54 ERA, 47 saves, 0.836 WHIP, 5.1 hits/9, 9.9 K/9

Some insist that a starter that pitches 200 or more innings has more value than a reliever throwing 70 innings. While there are merits to that, what about a starter's innings when he is on the mound leading by four or five runs or those innings against poor hitting teams or lesser opponents? Britton faced bad teams, too, but his innings came often in high-leverage situations.

Britton was asked several times late in the season if relievers should get strong consideration for the Cy Young Award.

"I don't have a vote," Britton said during the last homestand. "I think everyone, all pitchers, are considered. It's not a starting pitching award. Relievers have won it before, so I think everyone is considered. Just a matter of whoever has the votes, they are going to vote the way they want to do it and they're going to do it for their own reasons. There is really nothing you can do about it as a player. It's not something I'm going to focus on."

If Britton did win the award, he would be the 10th reliever to do so. The last reliever to win the Cy Young was the Dodgers' Eric Gagne in 2003. The last reliever to win the award in the AL was Eckersley with Oakland in 1992.

By the way, all of the top starting pitcher contenders for the AL award - including Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello and J.A. Happ - had ERAs of 3.00 or higher. The last time the AL Cy Young winner had an ERA of 3.00 or higher was in 2007 when Cleveland's CC Sabathia went 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA.

Britton gave up one earned run in his last 58 games. He had an ERA of 0.26 in home games. His groundball rate was 80 percent. Lefty batters hit .185 against him and right-handed batters hit .155. He yielded an average of just .085 when pitching with runners in scoring position and opposing batters were 0-for-6 against him when he pitched with the bases loaded.

Strong resume? How about ridiculously strong resume?

If you don't think Britton has pitched well enough to win this award, then you must not think any reliever ever has in any year.