Paul Skenes has won his first career Cy Young award. The Pirates righty is named the National League’s best pitcher one year after winning Rookie of the Year and finishing third in Cy Young balloting. He beat out Cristopher Sánchez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the honors. The vote was unanimous, as he received all 30 first-place votes. Sánchez was second on every ballot, so it wasn’t until third that voters began to diverge.
Skenes is the third pitcher in franchise history to win the Cy Young, joining Vernon Law (1960) and Doug Drabek (1990). He turned in an MLB-best 1.97 earned run average over his first full season in the big leagues. He’d posted a 1.96 mark across 23 starts as a rookie. He’s the only starting pitcher in the majors with a sub-2.00 ERA over the past two seasons. Skenes ranked fourth in the NL with 187 2/3 innings pitched and tied Jesús Luzardo for second with 216 strikeouts.
Only Logan Webb recorded more strikeouts. Skenes ranked fifth in strikeout rate (minimum 100 innings) and third behind Webb and Sánchez with 20 quality starts. He led the Senior Circuit with a 2.36 FIP and placed fifth with a 3.10 SIERA. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each had him in essentially a dead heat with Sánchez for the Wins Above Replacement lead.
The 2023 first overall pick is widely considered one of the two best pitchers in the sport. There’s a fair debate between him and two-time AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, but they’re almost certainly 1-2 in some order. Fans of other teams may dream about prying Skenes out of Pittsburgh, but that’s not happening anytime soon. General manager Ben Cherington stated in no uncertain terms yesterday that their ace would remain a Pirate in 2026. He’s under club control for another four seasons, and while a trade may be in the cards down the line, the immediate focus for player and team is getting the Bucs to the postseason. Skenes is the most important player on a team trying to break a decade-long playoff drought.
Sánchez had a breakout season to establish himself as a true ace for the Phillies. He fired 202 innings of 2.50 ERA ball across 32 starts. He finished fourth in the NL with 212 strikeouts. Sánchez had been a borderline top-of-the-rotation starter between 2023-24, earning a top 10 Cy Young finish in the second of those seasons. This was his first time posting a sub-3.00 ERA or topping 200 innings and strikeouts, so he certainly leveled up in his age-28 season. He’s signed through 2028 and under control through ’30 via a pair of club options on one of the most team-friendly contracts in the game.
Yamamoto’s World Series heroics weren’t a factor in the voting, which takes place at the end of the regular season. He earned his first All-Star nod and first Cy Young votes by turning in a 2.49 ERA across 30 starts. Yamamoto managed 201 strikeouts across 173 2/3 innings while leading the NL with fewer than six hits allowed per nine innings. Yamamoto had flashed ace potential in his first MLB season, but he was limited to 18 starts by a rotator cuff strain in 2024. He showed what he’s capable of in a full season in year two, and the Dodgers have won consecutive World Series in the first two seasons of his record-setting $325MM free agent contract.
Just over half of voters placed Yamamoto third. Webb received 10 third-place votes and finished fourth overall. Freddy Peralta picked up the four remaining third-place nods and landed in fifth place. Skenes and Sánchez were the only pitchers who appeared on every ballot. Nick Pivetta, Jesús Luzardo, Andrew Abbott and Zack Wheeler also received votes.
Image courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images. Full vote tally available courtesy of BBWAA.
That’s predictable now trade him to Yankees. He’s never staying in Pittsburgh
The Dodgers will outbid everyone like they normally do.
Na, he will be a Yankee or an Angel. He grew up an Angels fan and I think if they are anywhere close in the bidding, he will go there. If not, he will pick the Yankees over the Dodgers. At least according to several stories I have read about him.
Mendoza – The Phillies made the biggest contract offer to Yamamoto, the Mets made the same offer as the Dodgers, and the Yankees offered a higher AAV over 10 years instead of 12.
Yeah, but they don’t have the “Ohtani Japan card” to play with Skenes like they did with Yamamoto and Sasaki..
Maybe a “Suzuki Cubs card”, “Yoshida Red Sox card”, “Matsui Padres card”, or a “Senga Mets card” could work instead, because the Dodgers already have their positions filled.
Or maybe the less ignorant position is taking on the mindset that not all Japanese players follow Ohtani and want to just play in MLB…
Good for Skenes but happy too for the Pirates fans.
Start Polishing those mets unis for Skenes & skubal
Good luck on that
Good
Congratulations to Paul. For the record though, Cherington said he would be a Pirate in 2026, he didn’t say for how much of 2026.
They will keep him until they only have two years left.
If he stays healthy, Skenes will set the all time record for a 1st year arbitration salary for a pitcher, and possibly first overall of all arbitration players (record is $11.5 for Cody Bellinger). Pittsburgh might hold onto him during that first season, but his second season could be $20M+ and Pitt will be forced to trade him. It’s such a shame. If Pitt could draw 30K+ for every game, maybe they could afford to sign him long term. They have the best pitcher and best ballpark in all of baseball but a bottom 5 attendance record and a bad TV contract. All a recipe for forcing them to trade Skenes within the next 2-3 seasons. All teams are NOT created equal.
@Dorothy_Mantooth, do you know who Bob Nutting is?
Did pirates did ppi for skenes winning CY? Or similar to roy they get nothing?
No PPI. Teams can only get that if they called the player up for what would’ve been a full service year in their rookie season
Craaazy
Pirates got f’ed by mlb
Rules have to be changed
You’re so insufferable, chandlerbing, my goodness gracious, man…
Brown got Houston a PPI pick for 3rd in Cy Young
Skenes is only allowed to get his team one PPI pick, and he did that last year for Rookie of year.
No he didn’t. He was called up in May so he didn’t spend the entire year on the 26 man. He got a full year of service but the Pirates didn’t get the extra pick
How does a dude with a bad haircut a terrible beard, and the personality of a cardboard box end up livvy dunne?
Read the post and there is your answer
I’m pretty sure any sane person would rather go out with a professional baseball Cy Young Award-winning dude with a bad haircut, bad beard, and cardboard box personality than El Chapo
He has a great personality….
Congrats, Paul Skenes!
Cy Young in his second year, and he’ll only get better from there.
Now if there was a way for him to get out of Pittsburgh.
One more year and then Pittsburgh won’t be able to afford his arbitration.
Logan Webb not being a top 3 candidate for NL CY is a joke.
I actually ranked Webb in 5th after Skenes, Sanchez, Yamamoto and Peralta.
Drabek won 14 more games but struck out 85 fewer batters the year he won it. How different the game is since 1990…
It would have been interesting if Zach Wheeler would have lasted the entire season.
Well deserved for this beast
Skenes is second only to Sandy Koufax as the best pitcher that I ever saw.
That is presuming that he does not get seriously injured and stays as great as he is.
Koufax was pretty bad his first five years in the league,but the Dodgers were smart enough to keep him around.
Congratulations to Paul Skenes.
I hope the Pirates find the desire to compete and start surrounding Skenes with some decent talent. We know that Pittsburgh can fill PNC when they are competitive.
Viola should’ve won it the year Drabek did. It was still the era of only wins matters