Both 2026 Cys won in sophomore season. Here’s how rare that is

Winning a Cy Young Award at any point in a player’s career is a momentous accomplishment. It’s proof that you led the way among pitchers that season. But to get there early in a career is particularly rare.

This year’s unanimous winners are two bright young stars who reached that pinnacle quickly. Both the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski and the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler – this year’s National and American League Cy Young Award winners, respectively – won in just his second MLB season.

• All-time Cy Young Award winners

Misiorowski made 15 regular-season appearances in his 2025 debut year, 14 of them starts, and pitched in three postseason games. He was the Brewers’ Opening Day starter in ‘26, and it was off to the races in a season in which Misiorowski finished with a .157 opponents’ batting average. That’s the lowest by a pitcher in a qualified season on record (excluding shortened seasons), surpassing Pedro Martínez’s .167 in his spectacular ‘00.

Schlittler also debuted in 2025, making 14 regular-season starts and another two in the postseason, including a memorable 12-strikeout game in the AL Wild Card round. He started the Yankees’ second game of the ‘26 season and allowed one hit in 5 1/3 scoreless frames, showing the shape of what was to come. Schlittler finished the season with 25 starts allowing no more than one earned run, tied with 1963 Sandy Koufax and 1915 Grover Alexander for the second most in a season since earned runs became official (1913, excluding openers), per Elias. Only Walter Johnson had more, with 27 such starts in 1913.

And again, both Misiorowski and Schlittler did this in just his second MLB season.

How rare is a sophomore Cy? What about two in one year?
This is actually the second consecutive year that we’ve had at least one Cy Young Award winner in his second season. Paul Skenes did it in 2025, on the heels of an NL Rookie of the Year Award in ‘24.

Overall, Misiorowski and Schlittler are the sixth and seventh pitchers to win the Cy Young Award in his second MLB season. Some additional context: The award began in 1956 with one honor MLB-wide, then split to one per league for ‘67.

Something important to know at this point: No pitcher has won the Cy Young Award in his first MLB season. Thus, our septet is the group of pitchers to win the award the earliest into a career we’ve seen.

Before Skenes, it was Tim Lincecum in 2008, Bret Saberhagen and Dwight Gooden both in 1985 and Fernando Valenzuela in ‘81. Valenzuela is the only rookie to win the award, but again, it was his second season overall following an ‘80 debut.

From that list of seven, including Misiorowski and Schlittler, we can narrow further with the fact that this is a sophomore duo. The only other year with two such winners was, as noted above, 1985.

Think about that. This is the 60th season in which two Cy Youngs have been awarded — and just the second time that both winners were in his second season.

And in case you need a reminder of that 1985 magic: Gooden won the pitching Triple Crown, and Saberhagen led the AL in WHIP while winning 20 games. And his Royals won the World Series. The next year? Gooden’s Mets won it all.

Now in 2026, we have our second duo of sophomore Cys … one who won the World Series this year. That’s a great sign for Schlittler’s Yankees, should the pattern hold.

They’re both young, too, aren’t they?
That they are. Misiorowski is 24 and Schlittler is 25. While it’s not as rare as the sophomore duo, this is only the fourth time that both Cy Young Award winners have been under the age of 26 on the final day of the season.

In 2009, a 25-year-old Lincecum won his second consecutive Cy Young Award. His AL counterpart, Zack Greinke, was also 25.

The aforementioned 1985 duo is on this list, too. Gooden was 20 years and 324 days old, the award’s youngest winner, and Saberhagen was 21.

The first duo of sub-26-year-old Cy Young Award winners in the same season came in 1969, when a 24-year-old Tom Seaver won in the NL and 25-year-old Denny McLain won in the AL.

No matter which angle you prefer, this year’s Cy Young duo is a rare set of early-career achievers.