Paul Skenes wins 2025 National League Cy Young award: Pirates ace takes home honors in just second MLB season
Skenes followed up his 2024 Rookie of the Year season by getting even better
Paul Skenes, 23-year-old ace of the Pittsburgh Pirates, has unanimously won the National League Cy Young award for 2025.
Skenes on Wednesday night was announced as the winner of the balloting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He prevailed over his fellow NL award finalists, Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers. Skenes joins Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who won in the American League. Here's look at full voting:
| Pitcher | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Paul Skenes, Pirates | 30 | - | - | - | - | 210 |
Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies | - | 30 | - | - | - | 120 |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers | - | - | 16 | 11 | 2 | 72 |
Logan Webb, Giants | - | - | 10 | 6 | 5 | 47 |
Freddy Peralta, Brewers | - | - | 4 | 11 | 10 | 44 |
Nick Pivetta, Padres | - | - | - | - | 7 | 7 |
Jesús Luzardo, Phillies | - | - | - | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Andrew Abbott, Reds | - | - | - | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Zack Wheeler, Phillies | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
He's the first unanimous winner since Sandy Alcantara in 2022 and just the fifth in the past 20 years.
In his second MLB season, Skenes made 32 starts, and over that span he put up an MLB-leading ERA+ of 217 and an MLB-leading 2.36 FIP with 216 strikeouts and a 5.14 K/BB ratio. Skenes also logged a quality start in 63% of his trips to the mound, and he managed that 10-10 record despite toiling for a last-place Pirates team that lost 91 games. Skenes' WAR of 7.7 for this season ranked second only to Sánchez's 8.0 in all of baseball.
Skenes' work in 2025 comes after his stellar work as a rookie in 2024, when he won Rookie of the Year and finished third in the NL Cy Young vote despite not being called up until May 11 and working just 133 innings. Through the first 55 starts of his MLB career, Skenes has an ERA of 1.96.
Skenes is the third Pirates pitcher to win the Cy Young award. He joins Doug Drabek in 1990 and Vern Law in 1960.
Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal aren't just the 2025 Cy Young winners; they're the future of baseball
Matt Snyder
Even though Skenes isn't eligible for free agency until after the 2029 season, he's been the subject of constant trade rumors since not long after he arrived in the majors. While Pirates owner Bob Nutting is never to be doubted when it comes to his willful neglect of the on-field product in Pittsburgh, a trade of Skenes anytime soon seems highly unlikely. Indeed, general manager Ben Cherington recently told reporters that Skenes would indeed be a Pirate in 2026.
As for his new hardware, Skenes thanks to his youth, excellence to date, and underlying dominance has a real shot at joining the guild of those pitchers to win multiple Cy Young awards.
