Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal each won their first Cy Young Award on Wednesday night after the left-handers shared the MLB lead with 18 wins while leading their respective leagues in strikeouts and ERA.
Sale was 18-3 and topped the National League with 225 strikeouts, while his 2.38 ERA in 29 starts was the best among all major league qualifiers in his first season with the Braves. The 35-year-old was an All-Star for the eighth time and won his first Gold Glove this year.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and a major league-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts for the Tigers. He was a unanimous winner in voting for the AL prize by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America that was completed before the playoffs.
Sale was a first-round draft pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2010. He played seven seasons for the Sox, garnering five All-Star selections and a 3.00 ERA during that time. He was traded by the Sox to the Boston Red Sox in December 2016 in a deal that brought Michael Kopech and Yoán Moncada to Chicago. Sale was then traded to Atlanta in December 2023.
The Chicago Cubs starter Shota Imanaga finished fifth in NL voting.
