Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes are this year’s American League and National League Cy Young Award winners. <\/p>\n
Skubal received\u00a026\u00a0first-place votes and\u00a0195\u00a0total points in the BBWAA voting to beat out Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox and\u00a0Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros\u00a0to win the award.<\/p>\n
Skenes was a unanimous choice, earning 210\u00a0total points to beat out Cristopher S\u00e1nchez of the Philadelphia Phillies and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers\u00a0for the award.<\/p>\n
The last pitcher to win back-to-back AL Cy Young awards was Pedro Mart\u00ednez with the Boston Red Sox in 1999 and 2000. The last player in either league to win the award in consecutive years was Jacob deGrom in 2018-19.<\/p>\n
Skubal had a very tough act to follow after a breakout 2024 season in which he led the AL with 2.39 ERA and led MLB with 229 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
The left-hander managed to top himself in 2025 by lowering his ERA to 2.21, striking out 241 hitters and\u00a0leading<\/a>\u00a0MLB with a 7.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 195.1 innings.<\/p>\n No other player in MLB had a strikeout-to-walk ratio higher than 5.54. The gap between Skubal and the No. 2 player in that category (Crochet) was the same as it was from Crochet to Kevin Gausman at No. 14.<\/p>\n During his 31 regular-season starts, Skubal allowed two earned runs or fewer 21 times. His 10 games with at least 10 strikeouts\u00a0led<\/a>\u00a0MLB.<\/p>\n Skubal also had the\u00a0highest<\/a>\u00a0fWAR (6.6) among all pitchers in either league and lowest expected ERA (2.74) in the AL.<\/p>\n Virtually every metric available shows Skubal is dominating hitters in a way that few other pitchers in MLB are close to replicating. He has been the best starter in MLB since the start of 2024 and has the hardware to prove it.<\/p>\n Even with the pressure of being arguably the most-hyped draft prospect in years when he was selected No. 1 overall in 2023, Skenes has exceeded what anyone could have reasonably expected from him.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old had the\u00a0second-lowest ERA<\/a>\u00a0(1.96) ever by a rookie with at least 20 starts when he won NL Rookie of the year in 2024. He did it primarily by trying to strikeout everyone he faced, averaging 11.5 punch outs per nine innings.<\/p>\n This season saw Skenes change some of the ways he attacks opposing hitters without losing any effectiveness. His ERA was an MLB-best 1.97 while his strikeout rate dipped to “only” 10.4 per nine innings, but he was still close to untouchable.<\/p>\n A perfect example of how difficult it is to face Skenes was his Sept. 4 start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He told\u00a0Jordan Schusterman<\/a>\u00a0of Yahoo Sports his pregame bullpen was “terrible” and his first pitch registering a mere 97 mph left him thinking it was “gonna be a long day.”<\/p>\n Skenes proceeded to throw six shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out eight in a 5-3 win.<\/p>\n