Paul Skenes continues to amaze the baseball world. His supernatural effectiveness and dominance in his first two Major League seasons is unprecedented, and this has been reflected in his individual awards. Rookie of the Year in 2024 and unanimous Cy Young in 2025 confirm that we are dealing with one of the most impressive generational talents in history.
The Pirates right-hander won the award last Wednesday, recognizing him as the best pitcher in the National League in the recently concluded campaign. This was an open secret after Skenes’ spectacular year, in which he posted a 1.97 ERA in 32 starts, with 216 strikeouts and a 0.948 WHIP, the best in the Old Circuit.
In addition, he led the Majors in modern metrics such as FIP (2.36) and ERA+ (217). The former evaluates a pitcher only by the events he can control, leaving out of the equation the performance of defenders. The latter measures a pitcher’s performance relative to the league average, taking into account factors such as the stadium.
With an arsenal of up to seven different pitches, Skenes was indecipherable to opponents and buried the famous curse that commonly haunts players in their second year. In doing so, he became the sixth youngest pitcher (23 years and 5 months) in history to win a Cy Young Award.
The Top 5
It is not common for very young pitchers to have such a significant impact in the Major Leagues. As far as the Cy Young is concerned, for example, no one has won the award under the age of 20. However, there are exceptions where youth has managed to prevail just as Paul Skenes has done in 2025.
- Dwigth Gooden (Cy Young in 1985 at 20 years and 11 months): The youngest pitcher in history with a Cy Young Award to his name and the first to receive it before his 21st birthday. In 1985, Gooden achieved the Triple Crown, became the youngest pitcher with a 20-win season and the first in the National League with 200 strikeouts in each of his first two seasons
- Fernando Valenzuela (Cy Young in 1981 at 21 years old): The Mexican became the first rookie to win the Cy Young Award in a season with 25 starts, 11 complete games, more than 190 innings of work, a 2.48 ERA and 180 strikeouts, leading MLB in the latter category. No rookie had dominated the league in strikeouts since Herb Score in 1955
- Bret Saberhagen (Cy Young in 1985 at 21 years and 6 months): A talent that exploded early and by the age of 25 he had two Cy Young Awards. His early seasons were outstanding, but he failed to keep up the pace. In 1985 he won 20 games and was one of the key players in the Royals’ World Series
- Vida Blue (Cy Young in 1971 at 22 years and 2 months): One of the few pitchers to win MVP and Cy Young in the same season. The left-hander did it in his third MLB season after recording 24 wins, 24 complete games, eight shutouts and a 1.82 ERA
- Dean Chance (Cy Young in 1964 at 23 years and 4 months): In the days of Sandy Koufax, the Angels right-hander had an impressive 20-win, 1.65 ERA campaign, valid arguments to win the Cy Young in a much more competitive era, as the award was not given by leagues
Other young stars have also left their mark on Cy Young history. Of all of them, it is worth mentioning Clayton Kershaw, the only one to win the award three times before the age of 27.
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