HOUSTON -- Hunter Brown’s emergence as the ace of the Astros’ pitching staff in 2025 not only earned him a spot as a finalist for the American League Cy Young Award, but he was named to the All-MLB Second Team presented by MGM Rewards on Thursday in Las Vegas.
The All-MLB Team was introduced in 2019 to honor players’ full-season contributions, given that All-Star selections are based on first-half performance. Fans were asked to vote at MLB.com to help choose first- and second-team selections at each position (including three outfielders, a DH, five starting pitchers and two relievers) among this year's nominees.
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Brown, 27, had the best season of his career, going 12-9 with a 2.43 ERA and a career-low WHIP of 1.03 in 31 starts. He struck out a career-high 206 batters in 185 1/3 innings and allowed only 133 hits. He had eight starts in which he didn't allow an earned run.
Among AL qualifying starters, Brown ranked first in opponents' slugging percentage (.318), second in ERA and opponents' OPS (.589), tied for second in quality starts (21), third in strikeouts (206), fourth in WHIP, strikeouts per nine innings (10) and pitching WAR (4.8) and fifth in opponents' batting average (.201).
The longest scoreless-innings streak in the Major Leagues in 2025 belonged to Brown, who threw 28 scoreless innings from April 3-28 -- the fifth longest single-season streak by an Astros starter in history. Brown was named the AL Pitcher of the Month for June, posting a 1.19 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 30 1/3 innings, with the Astros winning all five of his starts during the month. He began the season with seven consecutive quality starts, becoming the first pitcher to do that since former Astros pitcher Joe Musgrove started the 2022 season with 12 straight quality starts with the San Diego Padres.
Joining Brown as pitchers on the second team are Cristopher Sánchez and Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, Freddy Peralta of the Brewers and Bryan Woo of the Mariners. Starting pitchers on the All-MLB first team are Paul Skenes of the Pirates, Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox, Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers and Max Fried of the Yankees.
Brown, Skubal and Crochet were AL Cy Young finalists this year.
Brown, a fifth-round pick by the Astros in 2019 out of Wayne State, broke into the Major Leagues in '22 and has been a full-time member of Houston's pitching staff the last three seasons, making 90 starts from 2023-25 and going 34-31 with a 3.59 ERA.