Paul Skenes’ ascent to the summit of pitching stardom reached a new peak when the Pittsburgh Pirates ace was announced as the 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner, capturing the honor unanimously in the BBWAA balloting. The decision completed a breathtaking two-year arc that began with rookie acclaim and now includes baseball’s most prestigious pitching prize, a sweep of recognition that underlines how rapidly Skenes has become the game’s most dominant young starter.
The back-to-back nature of Skenes’ meteoric rise, winning NL Rookie of the Year in 2024 followed by the Cy Young in 2025, is a feat rarely seen in modern baseball and a testament to his consistency and development between seasons. After arriving as the No. 1 overall pick out of LSU, Skenes turned heads as a rookie and carried that momentum into his sophomore year, when voters rewarded him with the sport’s top pitching honor just a season after postseason consideration for rookie accolades.
Skenes’ career narrative has been defined as much by rapid progression as by statistical dominance. He attacked hitters with a four-pitch mix that produced elite swing-and-miss stuff and elite command for his age, turning those scouting grades into on-field results and approaching every start like a high-leverage veteran rather than a 20-something sophomore.
The 2025 numbers that sealed the Cy Young case were staggering: across 32 starts Skenes posted a 1.97 ERA, struck out 216 batters, issued 42 walks and logged 187 2/3 innings while compiling a 10–10 record. He finished among the leaders in strikeout rate and ERA-adjusted metrics, and his 2.36 FIP and consistently high-velocity outings made clear that his run prevention was the product of sustainable stuff, not luck.
Beyond the raw totals, context elevated Skenes’s season. Pitching for a rebuilding club with uneven run support, his dominance stood apart from win–loss outcomes and forced voters to judge him on who he was on the mound rather than the scoreboard. That clarity helped produce the unanimous Cy Young vote, a rare endorsement that there simply wasn’t a close second in the eyes of the writers.
Realistically, there is virtually no chance that Skenes signs a long-term deal to stay in Pittsburgh once free agency arrives; his talent and youth make him a prime candidate for a massive market payday and long-term contract elsewhere. Even so, Pirates fans should cherish the time they have with him, every start is a front-row seat to a generational arm and a reminder of how a small-market club can briefly host the game’s brightest flame.
In a sport that prizes both peak performance and durability, the most remarkable thing about Skenes’s rise is the velocity of his impact: Rookie of the Year in Year One, Cy Young in Year Two, and a unanimous vote to underline that the baseball-writing community saw no close second this year. If 2025 is any guide, the Pirates have a generational ace on their hands and the baseball world has a new benchmark for early-career pitching dominance.