Paul Skenes won the 2025 National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night, sweeping the honor by getting all 30 first-place votes. Skenes had a 1.97 ERA with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Here's how the vote went down, plus a list of 21st century Cy Young winners.
Every time Paul Skenes took the mound in 2025, greatness was expected of the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander. And most every outing, he delivered.
Sadly, he was surrounded by a team that couldn't hit their weight. The Pirates were dead last in runs scored, dead last in home runs and — get this — dead last in optimism to be a winning team any time soon.
Skenes was so good through 32 starts that the former LSU star was the unanimous choice for the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, claiming all 30 votes. He finished the season with a 1.97 earned run average, and had 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings.
It was his second straight season of having an ERA under 2.00. He was 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 2024 when he won Rookie of the Year.
He also was just 10-10 on the season and the Pirates were just 17-15 in his starts. On seven different occasions, he didn't allow a single run — and still didn't get to win.
Pirates Roundtable writer John Perratto captured Skenes' reaction to winning the award.
Despite all that, he was very clearly the best pitcher in the league. And it wasn't even close.
Philadelphia's Christopher Sanchez received all 30 second-place votes and Los Angeles' Yoshinobu Yamamoto finished third.
- Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates — 210 points
- Christopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies — 120 points
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers — 72 points
- Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants — 47 points
- Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers — 44 points
- Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres — 7 points
- Jesus Luzardo, Philadelphia Phillies — 5 points
- Andrew Abbott, Cincinnati Reds — 4 points
- Zach Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies — 1 point
Here are all the NL Cy Young Award winners since 2000.
NL Cy Young Award winners (2000-25)#
2000 — Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks
2001 — Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks
2002 — Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks
2003 — Eric Gagne, Los Angeles Dodgers
2004 — Roger Clemens, Houston Astros
2005 — Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
2006 — Brandon Webb, Arizona Diamondbacks
2007 — Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres
2008 — Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
2009 — Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
2010 — Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies
2011 — Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
2012 — R.A. Dickey, New York Mets
2013 — Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
2014 — Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
2015 — Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs
2016 — Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
2017 — Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
2018 — Jacob deGrom, New York Mets
2019 — Jacob deGrom, New York Mets
2020 — Trevor Bauer, Cincinnati Reds
2021 — Corbin Burnes, Milwaukee Brewers
2022 — Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins
2023 — Blake Snell, San Diego Padres
2024 — Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves
2025 — Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates