Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has become the first pitcher in 25 years to win the American League Cy Young award in back-to-back seasons.
Skubal received 26 first-place votes and 195 total points in the BBWAA voting to beat out Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox and Hunter Brown of the Houston AstrosÂto win the award.
The last pitcher to win back-to-back AL Cy Young awards was Pedro MartÃnez 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.
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.
The left-hander managed to top himself in 2025 by lowering his ERA to 2.21, striking out 241 hitters and leading MLB with a 7.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 195.1 innings.
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.
During his 31 regular-season starts, Skubal allowed two earned runs or fewer 21 times. His 10 games with at least 10 strikeouts led MLB.
Skubal also had the highest fWAR (6.6) among all pitchers in either league and lowest expected ERA (2.74) in the AL.
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.
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