Paul Skenes could win the Cy Young award for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes had about as good of a first season in the MLB as you could have.
He was called up shortly after the season began, wowed the league immediately, made his first All-Star team, was named the starter and won the NL Rookie of the Year award.
But now, MLB.com writer David Adler points out that Skenes could be on track to win a different kind of award in 2025.
“Expect more total domination from Skenes in 2025. The Pirates’ superstar young ace is poised to take over as the No. 1 pitcher in the Majors. Steamer has Skenes as the most valuable pitcher in baseball this season with a projected 5.8 WAR,” Adler writes.
“Skenes is also projected to win the MLB ERA crown (2.80) and strikeout title (242). A year after we saw pitching Triple Crown winners in both leagues, Tarik Skubal in the AL and Chris Sale in the NL, Skenes could be the top contender to do it in 2025.”
Skubal and Sale took home Cy Young honors this past season, so if Skenes won the pitching Triple Crown, it would be hard not to give him the award on top of that.
Skenes was listed in an article of 10 potential breakout performers alongside Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Roki Sasaki, Jacob deGrom, Julio Rodriguez, Jackson Chourio, Mark Vientos, Max Fried and Felix Bautista.
To be in that company is a big honor, and it should create for big expectations for the coming season.
BD community, could Skenes win the Cy Young award this year? Chime off in the comments section below.