By David Schoenfield
Nov. 12, 2025
Tarik Skubal cemented his status as one of baseball’s elite, capturing his second consecutive American League Cy Young Award, while Paul Skenes followed his rookie breakout by becoming the unanimous National League Cy Young winner (30 first-place votes).
Skubal, the Detroit Tigers left-hander, took 26 of 30 first-place votes, topping Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown in the AL balloting. He is the first pitcher to repeat as Cy Young winner since Jacob deGrom in 2018-19 and the first AL pitcher to do it since Pedro Martínez (1999-2000). Skenes joins a short list of pitchers who won the award in their first or second big-league seasons — Fernando Valenzuela, Bret Saberhagen, Dwight Gooden and Tim Lincecum.
Skubal went 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA, 241 strikeouts and 195 1/3 innings pitched. He led the AL in Baseball-Reference WAR (6.5) and FanGraphs WAR (6.6) and paced qualified AL starters in ERA, strikeout rate (32.2%), lowest walk rate (4.4%), opponent OBP (.240) and OPS allowed (.559). His fastball averaged nearly 98 mph and his changeup held hitters to a .154 batting average, accounting for roughly 110 of his strikeouts. Skubal recorded 12 scoreless starts among his 31 outings — the most scoreless starts of at least six innings in Tigers history and the most in the majors since Adam Wainwright in 2014.
His signature performance came May 25 against the Cleveland Guardians: a two-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts on just 94 pitches, a game score of 96 that was the best in the AL in 2025. Skubal credited time spent rehabbing a 2023 injury with allowing him to refine his changeup and overhaul his pitch design. “I was able to work on things for extended periods of time on rehab assignment … there’s kind of a little bit of a blessing in disguise in getting hurt in that aspect,” he said.
Skubal’s season ended in frustration when he started Game 5 of the AL Division Series for the second straight year and left after six innings with 13 strikeouts and a 2-1 lead; the Tigers ultimately lost the game in 15 innings to Seattle. With one season remaining before free agency and Scott Boras as his agent, the Tigers have not discussed contract-extension or trade options publicly. GM Jeff Greenberg said the club would not comment on players in that context; Boras said, “we’ll continue to discuss” a possible extension. Skubal becomes the fifth Detroit pitcher to win a Cy Young, joining Denny McLain, Willie Hernandez, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.
Skenes, the 23-year-old right-hander for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was a unanimous choice after posting a 10-10 record with a 1.97 ERA, 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings, 11 home runs allowed and a .199 opponents’ batting average. He led NL pitchers in ERA, WHIP (0.948) and FanGraphs WAR (6.5), and tied for second in strikeouts. Cristopher Sanchez received all 30 second-place votes and finished second in the NL balloting; Yoshinobu Yamamoto was third.
At 23, Skenes is the youngest qualified pitcher to finish with a sub-2.00 ERA since Dwight Gooden, and he is the third-youngest to pair a sub-2.00 ERA with 200-plus strikeouts (behind Gooden and Vida Blue). His four-seam averaged 98.2 mph; he throws seven different pitches and featured a sweeper that held batters to a .150 average and a changeup that limited hitters to .103. His four-seam fastball alone accounted for 104 of his strikeouts.
Skenes’ 10-10 record reflected inconsistent run support: the Pirates scored zero runs in five of his 32 starts and just one run in another five. He had 12 scoreless starts (going 7-0 in those games) and was 1-2 across six starts in which he allowed one run. Selected No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft after a dominant college career at LSU (he started college as a two-way player at Air Force), Skenes debuted in May 2024 after only 34 minor-league innings and became the first pitcher to start the All-Star Game in each of his first two seasons (2024 and 2025).
This marks only the second time both starting pitchers from the All-Star Game went on to win the Cy Young in the same year — the other instance was Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens in 2001.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.
