Tigers' Tarik Skubal, Pirates' Paul Skenes win Cy Young Awards - ESPN

Tarik Skubal confirmed his greatness in 2025, while Paul Skenes affirmed his is just beginning.

Skubal, the left-handed ace for the Detroit Tigers, won his second consecutive American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, while Skenes, the second-year right-hander for the Pittsburgh Pirates, followed up his Rookie of the Year season by winning his first National League Cy Young Award, getting all 30 first-place votes in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Skubal becomes the first pitcher to win back-to-back since Jacob deGrom in 2018-19 and the first AL pitcher to do so since Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000. Skenes becomes just the fifth pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in his first or second season, joining Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Bret Saberhagen (1984), Dwight Gooden (1985) and Tim Lincecum (2008).

Skubal received 26 of the 30 first-place votes to finish ahead of Boston Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet and Houston Astros right-hander Hunter Brown in the AL. Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez got all 30 second-place votes to finish second to Skenes, while Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto was third in NL balloting.

It is just the second time — after Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens in 2001 — that both starting pitchers from the All-Star Game went on to win the Cy Young Award.

Skubal finished 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts in 195⅓ innings, leading the AL in both Baseball-Reference WAR (6.5) and FanGraphs WAR (6.6) while also leading qualified pitchers in ERA, strikeout rate (32.2%), lowest walk rate (4.4%), OBP allowed (.240) and OPS allowed (.559).

Using a blistering fastball that averaged nearly 98 mph and one of the best changeups in the game