Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal won his second consecutive American League Cy Young Award and Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes was the unanimous choice for his first National League Cy Young on Wednesday.
Skubal is the 12th pitcher — and fifth in the American League — to win back-to-back honors. The last pitcher to accomplish that was the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom in 2018-19, while the most recent AL hurler was the Boston Red Sox’s Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000.
A two-time All-Star, Skubal went 13-6 with an AL-leading 2.21 ERA and 6.5 WAR for pitchers. He led the majors with a 0.891 WHIP, 1.5 walks per nine innings and 7.30 ratio of strikeouts to walks. He totaled 241 strikeouts to 33 walks while pitching 195 1/3 innings over 31 starts.
“It’s an individual award, obviously, but I’m proud of our team,” Skubal said on MLB Network on Wednesday night. “I’m proud of the way we competed this year. Obviously, (we) went through some adversity late in the season but came back in the playoffs and competed. Obviously, came up short, but a lot of credit for this award goes to the guys that play behind me and the guys behind the dish, too, and just our organization. I think a lot of credit needs to go to those people in moments like this.”
Skubal received 26 first-place votes and four second-place votes for 198 total points in voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox was second with four first-place votes, 26 second-place votes and 132 points. Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros was third with 24 third-place votes and 80 points. Max Fried of the New York Yankees was fourth with six third-place votes and 61 points. Bryan Woo of the Seattle Mariners was fifth with 26 total points.
An All-Star in each of his two seasons, Skenes did not get much run support in 2025, when he was 10-10 with a 1.97 ERA, 42 walks and 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings over 32 starts.
He led the majors in ERA and home runs allowed per nine innings (0.5) while tops in the NL with a 0.948 WHIP.
“It truly is a team effort, with the coaches that we had, the players,” Skenes said on Wednesday night on MLB Network. “It’s pitchers making each other better, our catcher-pitcher relationship, coaches, the organization putting you in good spots to succeed. I couldn’t have done it by myself. I’m super grateful that I have the infrastructure around me and the people around me to succeed.”
Skenes, 23, received all 30 first-place votes for 210 points. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez got all 30 second-place votes for 120 points, and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto had 16 third-place votes and 72 points for third. Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants had 10 third-place votes and 47 points. Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers had four third-place votes for 44 points and fifth place.
The 2024 NL Rookie of the Year, Skenes was third in the Cy Young voting that season when he went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 32 walks and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings over 23 starts.
He is the fifth pitcher to collect a Cy Young Award in his first two seasons, joining Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers (1981), Bret Saberhagen of the Royals (1984), Dwight Gooden of the Mets (1985) and Tim Lincecum of the Giants (2008).
Pittsburgh selected Skenes first overall in the 2023 MLB Draft out of LSU.
“As I look back on my past in baseball up to this point, I got recruited to college as a catcher, kept growing and started pitching and got better on the mound,” Skenes said. “Never thought I would end up here. Never thought that I would be in the major leagues, much less winning a Cy Young. It doesn’t always work out how you think it’s going to, but if you stay the course, you surround yourself with good people, you work hard, that’s the minimum, you’re going to do exactly what you’re supposed to do, whatever that looks like.”
Skubal won his first Cy Young Award in 2024 when he earned the pitching Triple Crown with 18 victories, a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 192 innings over 31 starts.
His career record is 54-37 with a 3.08 ERA, 172 walks and 889 strikeouts in 766 2/3 innings over 137 regular-season games (134 starts) since making his major league debut in 2020.
He went 1-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three starts in the 2024 playoffs and 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA in three starts this year, but Detroit fell short each time. The Tigers eliminated the Cleveland Guardians in the 2025 AL wild-card series but lost to the Seattle Mariners in their divisional series in five games. In 2024, the Tigers swept the Houston Astros in the wild-card round but fell to the Guardians in five games in the divisional series.
Detroit selected Skubal in the ninth round of the 2018 draft out of Seattle University. He had Tommy John surgery while in college and dealt with injuries early in his MLB career.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from. I think that’s the message,” said Skubal, who turns 29 on Nov. 20. “I had one offer out of high school. It’s not a Power 5 school by any means, but look at me now. I think that’s the beauty of the game of baseball. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at 12 or good at 24 or 25. There’s a ton of stuff to happen and just take your career day by day and see how good your career can be.”
