Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal has been named a finalist for the 2025 American League Cy Young Award.
Skubal is one of three finalists, as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The other finalists: Houston Astros right-hander Hunter Brown and Boston Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet.
The winner will be announced at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 on MLB Network.
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Skubal, who turns 29 on Nov. 20, won the 2024 AL Cy Young Award, receiving all 30 first-place votes. He is the favorite to repeat in 2025, which would make him the first AL Cy Young winner in back-to-back seasons since Pedro Martínez in 1999-2000.
If Skubal wins, he would also become the second pitcher in Tigers history to win the Cy Young Award twice – doing so for the first time since Denny McLain in 1968-69.
Since 2000, the National League has produced several back-to-back NL Cy Young winners: Randy Johnson (1999-2002), Tim Lincecum (2008-09), Clayton Kershaw (2013-14), Max Scherzer (2016-17) and Jacob deGrom (2018-19).
In 2025, Skubal posted a 2.21 ERA with 33 walks and 241 strikeouts across 195⅓ innings in 31 starts. For that, he projects to become the first AL Cy Young winner in consecutive seasons during the 21st century.
Five Tigers pitchers have won the Cy Young Award, which was first given out in 1956: McLain (1968-69), Willie Hernández (1984), Justin Verlander (2011), Max Scherzer (2013) and Skubal (2024).
The Tigers selected Skubal in the ninth round, at No. 255 overall, in the 2018 MLB draft out of Seattle University, which was his only Division I offer.
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