LAS VEGAS -- Following a stellar sophomore season in the Major Leagues, Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting. The Pirates' Paul Skenes was the unanimous winner, while the Phillies' Cristopher Sánchez was the runner-up, as announced Wednesday on MLB Network.
Yamamoto appeared on 29 ballots out of a possible 30. He received 16 third-place votes, 11 fourth-plate votes and two fifth-place votes in his first time as a finalist for the top pitching honor in the Major Leagues.
Baseball Writers' Association of America members vote on awards after the regular season and before the postseason. Yamamoto's incredible playoff run in which he earned World Series MVP honors for his efforts to help secure his team back-to-back championships was not part of the body of work that voters considered for Cy Young balloting.
Yamamoto came to the Majors at 25 years old as a three-time winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award, Nippon Professional Baseball's equivalent of the Cy Young. His career résumé was such that the Dodgers gave him the largest contract for a pitcher in Major League history -- 12 years, $325 million dollars -- before he had thrown a pitch in the big leagues.
Given that, it would be unfair to say that this was unexpected. After breaking out in the 2024 postseason, Yamamoto kept up the momentum in '25 by going 12-8 with a 2.49 ERA, struck out 201 batters against 59 walks in 173 2/3 innings and held opponents to a .183 average, the lowest mark in the Majors.
As remarkable as Yamamoto's age-26 season was, he wasn't going to beat out Skenes, who put together a historic year. Sánchez recorded a comparable ERA (2.50), but pitched nearly 30 more innings, likely one of the factors that secured him a second-place finish.
Statistics don't paint the full picture of Yamamoto's value to the Dodgers, whose rotation was ravaged by injuries early on. The only member of the rotation who didn't miss a start, he stepped up as the staff ace and truly embodied that role in the postseason.
While Yamamoto did not become the first Dodger since Clayton Kershaw in 2014 to bring home the Cy Young Award, he was more than deserving of being in the conversation. And if he continues to build on what he's accomplished in his young Major League career, he will remain there for years to come.
Yamamoto’s teammate Shohei Ohtani could make significant history if he wins the NL Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday, which will be revealed alongside the AL MVP starting at 4 p.m. PT on MLB Network.