MLB Awards Watch: American League Cy Young race has stellar favorite in Tarik Skubal, but it's a loaded field


                        MLB Awards Watch: American League Cy Young race has stellar favorite in Tarik Skubal, but it's a loaded field
By: CBS Sports Posted On: July 02, 2025 View: 3

I was quite pleased that Tarik Skubal got an opportunity to show the masses just what he looks like these days when he took the hill Sunday night on national TV against the Twins

Skubal is a thing of beauty on the mound. He's a lefty with a high leg kick and overpowering stuff, only he delivers it with precision -- a tapestry of high-octane velocity, sick breaking stuff, painting the corners and never missing his spot. He's like a hybrid of Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine, except if Glavine had to actually hit the corners instead of expanding them. 

On the national broadcast, Skubal did not disappoint. He carved through the Twins with relative ease. He struck out two in a 1-2-3 first inning. Then he struck out all six batters he faced in the second and third innings. He had a perfect game through 4 ⅓ innings. His final line? Seven innings, one hit, zero runs, one walk, 13 strikeouts and the win. 

The 2024 AL Cy Young winner, Skubal looks poised to repeat. His numbers right now: 10-2, 2.15 ERA, 184 ERA+, 0.84 WHIP, 138 K, 14 BB, 109 IP, 3.9 WAR. He leads the AL in wins, FIP, WHIP, strikeouts per nine, strikeout-to-walk ratio and several other categories. 

The fun part about this Cy Young race, however, is that there's a stellar field this year with big names. You've got the established ace in Skubal with some breakout pitchers, a newcomer to the league and a comeback guy. It's really fun.

Here are the current odds, via BetMGM:

Skubal is the best pitcher in the world right now, so he's a great "main character" type for this exercise. It's a bonus that he pitches for the best team in the league and likely (hopefully) will start the All-Star Game. This thing isn't over, though. There are great pitchers with cool stories in the mix. 

We'll start with Crochet, a first-round pick in 2020 who pitched in the majors before the minors and then served as a reliever in 2021 before missing all of 2022 with injury. He was again a reliever in 2023, but the White Sox finally put him in the rotation in 2024 and he was an All-Star, though he pitched for the worst team in modern MLB history. He was traded to the Red Sox in the offseason and is 8-4 with a 3.5 WAR, 2.26 ERA (184 ERA+), 1.03 WHIP and 144 strikeouts against 32 walks in an MLB-best 115 ⅓ innings. The 144 strikeouts also lead the majors. He only worked 146 innings last season, so his workload is worth monitoring, but he looks the part of a strong Cy Young contender. 

Astros righty Hunter Brown was a top prospect before the 2023 season, but then he posted a 5.09 ERA. He was better last season, but still was more of a mid-rotation starter. This is his breakout campaign. He's 8-3 with an MLB-best 1.74 ERA in addition to a 0.89 WHIP and 118 strikeouts against 28 walks in 98 innings. The 3.9 WAR is a virtual tie with Skubal at the top. While he's 26 and having his "take a leap forward" season, his workload probably doesn't preclude a victory here. He worked 155 ⅔ innings in 2023 and 170 last season. It's reasonable to believe he can get to 190 or more this year without running out of gas. Regardless, it's cool to see a pitcher round into shape like this.

Yankees ace Max Fried has long been a known commodity, though that was with the Braves. He was signed by the Yankees to be a co-ace alongside Gerrit Cole. Cole went down in the spring and underwent Tommy John surgery. No problem, Fried seemed to say, as he took the mantle of Yankees ace upon his own left shoulder. He's 10-2 with a 12.13 ERA (190 ERA+), 0.94 WHIP and 106 strikeouts versus 23 walks in 114 innings. At 3.7 WAR, he's pushing Skubal and Brown. Perhaps there are bonus points for stepping in for Cole on the defending AL champs? We'll see. Fried has never won the award before, but he finished second in 2022 on the NL side.

deGrom has won the Cy Young before. In fact, he did it twice in a row in 2018-19. He was well on his way to taking it again in 2021 when he fell injured and that was a theme for years. While he topped 200 innings three straight years to close out the 2010s, he hadn't topped 92 innings in the 2020s until last week when he surpassed that tally this year. He came back from Tommy John surgery to close last season with three starts, but he surely still qualifies for Comeback Player of the Year (the criteria is simply "re-emerged on the field" and can be defined however each voter pleases). He's 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 100 strikeouts in 101 ⅓ innings with 3.3 WAR.

In Skubal, we've got the Big Dog of the field, side by side with the young fireballer Crochet, the breakout ace Brown and established star Fried, while deGrom has resurrected himself after years of being out of the picture. There are three lefties and two righties in there. It's a diverse field in terms of the stories and what types of pitchers they are. 

Even going beyond this group, there's a fun variety of pitchers. 

Royals lefty Kris Bubic (+5000) entered the season with a career high of 1.3 WAR, but through 16 starts he's at 3.3 with a 2.25 ERA in 96 innings. Astros veteran lefty Framber Valdez (+4000) remains such a sturdy and steady presence. He's 9-4 with 3.2 WAR, a 2.72 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 109 innings. Yankees No. 2 Carlos Rodón (+5000) has stepped up his game this season, sitting 9-5 with a 2.95 ERA in 106 ⅔ innings. 

Yeah, I still like Skubal. I like watching him, I like him to win the Cy Young and I believe he's the best pitcher in the world right now. If he falters, though, there are a good number of very worthy candidates poised to step in and grab this hardware. It's a fun race to monitor, even if we think we know who will ultimately emerge.

Read this on CBS Sports
  About

Omnixia News is your intelligent news aggregator, delivering real-time, curated headlines from trusted global sources. Stay informed with personalized updates on tech, business, entertainment, and more — all in one place..