When the Pirates drafted Paul Skenes with the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, he was billed as the top pitching prospect of his generation. When he debuted in '24, he went on to win National League Rookie of the Year and finish third for the NL Cy Young Award.
Now, after his first full season in the Majors, Skenes is again up for the game’s top pitching honor.
On Monday, Skenes was named as one of three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award, as voted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers are also finalists for the honor.
Skenes entered the year as a favorite for the award, and he certainly delivered on the hype. His 1.97 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 2.36 FIP and 217 ERA+ were all tops in the NL, as he went 10-10 over 187 2/3 innings across his 32 starts, one of which was a complete game. His 216 strikeouts were tied with Jesús Luzardo for the second most in the NL behind Logan Webb’s 224, and he was one of six pitchers across the Majors qualified for the ERA title who held hitters to a batting average below the Mendoza Line (.199).
Based on his age at the end of the regular season (23 years and 122 days), Skenes would be the fifth-youngest Cy Young Award winner, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The only younger Cy winners are 22-year-old Vida Blue in 1971, 20-year-old Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, 20-year-old Dwight Gooden in 1985 and 21-year-old Bret Saberhagen in '85.
From a Pirates lens, Skenes may have had the greatest season for a pitcher in the Modern Era of the franchise (since 1900). His 1.97 ERA and 7.6 WAR (according to Baseball-Reference) are the best for any full-time Pirates starter since 1900, and he set a new team strikeouts record for a right-hander. Skenes’ 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings were the second best among qualified pitchers in franchise history behind Oliver Pérez’s 11.0 K/9 rate in 2004, and his 5.14 ratio of strikeouts to walks was the best.
Of course, the statistics only tell part of the story, as Skenes has quickly become one of the faces of not only his franchise but the sport as well. That included him starting his second straight All-Star Game, becoming the first pitcher to receive that honor in his first two seasons.
Skenes was unanimously voted the recipient of the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award for Team MVP and the Steve Blass Award for the Pirates’ best pitcher this season by the local BBWAA chapter.
“I don’t really come into the year with any expectations in terms of numbers and anything like that for myself,” Skenes said in late September after receiving those awards. “I pitched pretty well this year, but I’ve grown a lot and I’ve learned a lot. That’s the thing I’m most excited about. I learned what I need to do and then also what we need to do.”
Skenes will try to become the third Pirate to win a Cy Young, joining Vern Law (1960) and Doug Drabek (‘90). When he finished third for the award last season, he became just the seventh Pirate to finish in the top three and the first since John Smiley in ‘91.
The BBWAA Awards will be shown on MLB Network from Nov. 10-13, with the Cy Young Award broadcast starting at 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 12.