Skubal becomes 12th to win consecutive Cy Young Awards

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal won his second straight American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, joining elite company after another spectacular season in which the left-hander helped propel Detroit to a playoff berth. The 28-year-old Skubal became the 12th player to win baseball's top pitching honor in consecutive years, joining a group that includes Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez.Jacob deGrom was the most recent pitcher to win consecutive Cy Youngs, pulling off the feat with the New York Mets in 2018 and 2019. Martinez was the last American League pitcher to do it, in 1999 and 2000.Skubal posted a 13-6 record with an American League-leading 2.21 ERA and 240 strikeouts in 195 1/3 innings for the Tigers during the regular season, then went 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA in three playoff starts for Detroit, which was eliminated by Seattle in the Division Series.Skubal received 26 of 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The other four went to runner-up Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox. Crochet led the American League in innings (205 1/3) and strikeouts (255). Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros came in third.A year after taking a massive step forward by winning the pitching Triple Crown in the American League on his way to being a unanimous Cy Young Award winner, Skubal backed it up by serving as the anchor for the Tigers during a volatile season in which Detroit squandered a 15 1/2-game lead in the AL Central and was caught by Cleveland down the stretch.The Tigers got a bit of revenge in the wild-card round, beating the division-champion Guardians in three games thanks in large part to a 14-strikeout gem by Skubal in the series opener.Skubal's historic run comes with him set to enter free agency after the 2026 season. Considering the massive contract Skubal could command on the open market, it's uncertain whether he'll stay with the Tigers beyond next season. Later in the evening, Pittsburgh start Paul Skenes — whose 1.97 ERA was tops in baseball — was announced as the National League Cy Young award winner. Skenes became the first pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year one season and a Cy Young Award the next since Dwight Gooden did it with the New York Mets 40 years ago.Philadelphia's Cristopher Sanchez and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers were the other two finalists in the National League.