Tarik Skubal wins his second consecutive Cy Young Award

Tarik Skubal is the first pitcher to win the Cy Young in consecutive years in the AL since Pedro Martínez (1999-2000)

Left-hander Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers won his second consecutive Cy Young Award in the American League, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) reported Wednesday.

“Obviously, it’s an individual award,” Skubal said from Las Vegas, where he received news of the award. “But I’m proud of our team. I’m proud of how we competed this year. Obviously, we had some setbacks at the end of the season, but we bounced back in the playoffs and competed. Obviously, we didn’t make it, but a lot of the credit for this award goes to the players behind me, the catchers and our entire organization.”

Skubal, the first pitcher to win the Cy Young in consecutive years in the American League since the Dominican Pedro Martinez (1999-2000) and the first for his team since Denny McLain (1968-69) in 56 years, he defeated left-hander Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox and right-hander Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros.

Last season, Skubal became the fifth pitcher in Tigers history to win the Cy Young Award, joining McLain, the Puerto Rican reliever. Guillermo ‘Willie’ Hernandez (1984), Justin Verlander (2011) and Max Scherzer (2013). He is now the first pitcher, in any league, to win consecutive trophies since right-hander Jacob deGrom did so with the New York Mets in 2018-19.

Skubal (13-6, 2.21) led all AL pitchers in bWAR (6.6), ERA, WHIP (0.89), walks per nine innings (1.5), strikeouts per walk (7.30) and adjusted ERA (187), and was second in strikeouts (241) and innings (195.1) and third in opposition batting average (.200).

Information from Major League Baseball was used in this story.