Pirates' Skenes wins 1st Cy Young Award, Tigers' Skubal goes back-to-back

The individual trophy cases for Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are growing increasingly full.

The next step in the evolution of baseball's two best pitchers is winning — preferably where they are.

The 23-year-old Skenes capped his blistering rise to stardom by capturing the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night. The Pittsburgh Pirates ace was a unanimous choice by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the honor coming minutes after Skubal won baseball's premier pitching prize in the American League for the second straight year as the anchor of the Detroit Tigers.

As gratified as they are by the recognition, both said they are eager for their respective teams to get in on the act in 2026.

That's where things get tricky.

The 28-year-old Skubal is entering his final year of club control, and while he would like to stay in Detroit beyond next season, he's also well aware the Tigers could trade him as a business decision, considering the hefty raise the left-hander figures to command should he hit the open market as a free agent.

It's much the same for Skenes, who remains under team control for the rest of the decade but found himself pushing back against a report that he's already told teammates he is eager to move on.

"I don't know where that came from," Skenes said. "The goal is to win and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh."

The Pirates finished last in the NL Central in 2025, well off the pace of front-running Milwaukee. The first pitcher since Dwight Gooden with the New York Mets in the mid-1980s to win Rookie of the Year one season and a Cy Young Award the next remains optimistic Pittsburgh is closer to contending than most think.

"The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not