Pirates’ Paul Skenes, Tigers’ Tarik Skubal Each Claim Cy Young Award

Paul Skenes’ meteoric rise to the top is complete.The young Pittsburgh Pirates ace was a unanimous choice for the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night, becoming the first pitcher in 40 years to win Rookie of the Year one season and baseball’s top pitching prize the next.Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal won his second straight American League Cy Young Award earlier Wednesday, joining elite company after another spectacular season in which the left-hander helped propel Detroit to a playoff berth.The 23-year-old Skenes — selected first overall by the Pirates in the 2023 amateur draft after a standout career at Air Force and LSU — was a marvel for the last-place Pirates, leading the majors in ERA (1.97) while striking out 216 batters in 187 1/3 innings during his first full season in the big leagues.Yet even with his brilliance, Skenes needed a little late help from Pittsburgh’s woeful offense to avoid becoming the first Cy Young-winning starting pitcher to finish with a losing record. Skenes was able to win three of his last four decisions, resulting in a 10-10 record. Dwight Gooden won the Rookie of the year and Cy Young Award consecutively in the NL in 1984 and in 1985 for the New York Mets. In 1981, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela won both NL awards. Vern Law in 1960 and Doug Drabek were the only Pirates to have won the Cy Young Award. Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sánchez received every second-place vote, and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers finished third.Sánchez’s 2029 option price increased by $1 million to $15 million and his 2030 option price by $1 million to $16 million as a result of being a Cy Young Award finalist.Skubal received 26 of 30 first-place votes from a separate BBWAA panel. Garrett Crochet from the Boston Red Sox received the other four votes. Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros came in third.The 28-year-old Skubal became the 12th hurler to win baseball’s top pitching honor in consecutive years, joining a group that includes Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Pedro Martínez.Jacob deGrom was the previous pitcher to win consecutive Cy Youngs, pulling off the feat with the New York Mets in 2018 and 2019. Martínez was the last American League pitcher to do it, in 1999 and 2000 for Boston.Skubal was 13-6 with an AL-leading 2.21 ERA and 240 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings for the Tigers during the regular season. He then went 1-0 in three post-season starts with a 1.74 ERA for Detroit. The team was defeated by Seattle in its Division Series. Crochet led the American League with 205 1/3 innings and 255 strikeouts. It’s unclear whether Skubal will stay with the Tigers after next season, given the huge contract he could command in the open market. Reporting by The Associated Press. Want to receive great stories in your email? To receive personalized daily newsletters, create or log into your FOX Sports Account and follow teams, leagues and players!
2025-11-13 01:41:27