The MLB announced on November 12 that Tarik Skubal is the winner of the 2025 American League Cy Young Award, his second in a row, which consolidates him as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, being one of the most dominant arms in modern baseball. The Detroit Tigers left-hander won the vote of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) with 26 out of 30 first-place votes over Boston Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet and Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown.
This recognition became historic as it was the first time since 1999-2000 that a pitcher has won this award in the American League for the second consecutive year, emulating what Pedro Martinez did. Skubal thanked his team for being part of this achievement:
It’s an individual award, obviously, but I’m proud of our team. A lot of the credit for this award goes to the guys playing behind me and to our organization
The numbers that support Tarik Skubal as ‘pitching king’ for second consecutive year
Division Series against the Seattle Mariners
- ERA: 2.21 – American League leader
- WHIP: 0.89 – Lowest in MLB
- Strikeouts: 241
- Innings pitched: 195.1
- FIP: 2.45
where he pitched seven or more innings without allowing a run in nine of his 31 starts.
His best performance came against the Cleveland Guardians on May 25 when he struck out 13 batters without walking a batter. All of the above earned him the American League Cy Young Award for the second consecutive year.
Tarik Skubal’s secret weapons at the center of the diamond: changeup and velocity, his favorite pitches
changeup,
which was rated as the best in all of MLB with a swing-and-miss rate of 46.8% and a batting average of just .154. His second best pitch was the four-seam fastball where he reached his top speed of 102.6 mph.
The credit is shared with my pitching coaches and my catchers. After my injury in 2023, I was able to work on the details, redesign my pitches and better understand how to attack each hitter
because his renewal is very expensive. In this situation, there are already several teams interested in taking the two-time Cy Young Award winner to their team
.
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