At the 2025 MLB All-Star Game, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers and Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates faced off as the Midsummer Classic’s starting pitchers. Roughly four months later, the two aces achieved something even grander: They were named the Cy Young Award winners in their respective leagues.
That makes two straight American League Cy Youngs for Skubal, and it’s the first NL award for Skenes, who just completed his second MLB season. Both made history with the honors as Skubal becomes just the 12th pitcher in MLB history—and first AL pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000—to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards. As for Skenes, 23, he becomes the fifth-youngest winner of the award and is also the fifth player to win it within his first two MLB seasons. No rookie has ever won the Cy Young.
