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Paul Skenes wins 2025 NL Cy Young Award

Barkley-Truaxby: Barkley Truax3 hours agoBarkleyTruax
MLB: Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Yankees
Sep 28, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes (30) pitches against the New York Yankees during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images

After a successful second season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes has won the 2025 National League Cy Young. It was a unanimous selection with Skenes receiving all 30 first-place votes.

Skenes joins a short list of pitchers who won Rookies of the Year and a Cy Young during their first two seasons in the big leagues. That includes Fernando Valenzuela, who won both awards in 1981, and Dwight Gooden, who achieved the feat in 1984 and 85.

The AL Cy Young Award went to Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. He helped take his club to the ALDS before falling to the Seattle Mariners in five games.

For Skenes, he’s performing at a level to begin his career that we’ve ever seen before. He boasts a 1.96 ERA across 55 career starts — the lowest of any pitcher since the Live Ball Era (1920).

During the 2025 season, Skenes finished the year with a 1.97 ERA — more than a half run lower than any other pitcher in the NL. Additionally, Skenes led the NL in WHIP (0.95) and homers per nine (0.5). He finished the season with 216 strikeouts, which was good for second-best in the National League.

Despite all of his success, Skenes finished with a 10-10 record. However, that wasn’t his fault more often than not. He received an average of 3.4 runs of support each game which was the third-lowest among qualified pitchers in the big leagues this season.

Skenes also finished the season pitched 187.2 innings pitched. He’s the first MLB pitcher to finish the season with an era below 2.00 and 185 innings thrown since Jacob deGrom did so with the New York Mets in 2018.

“There’s mental prep work every day,” Skenes said of his approach. “I think it’s in everything that you do. Going into each game is pretty much the same preparation for every game. The four days, five days leading up to it. Pretty much do the same thing. It’s boring, but that’s kind of what you have to do.”

Last season, Skenes finished third in the NL Cy Young voting as a rookie despite his season beginning on May 11 — several weeks into the 2024 season. That speaks volumes to his production, which began almost immediately after taking the mound for Pittsburgh for the first time.

Skenes’ Cy Young victory makes him the first Pirates pitcher since 1990 to win the award. He now joins Vern Law (1960) and Doug Drabek (1990).