Detroit Tigers ace lefty Tarik Skubal is the 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner. Skubal topped Royals starter Seth Lugo (who finished second) and Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase (who finished third) in the Baseball Writers Association of America balloting for the award, which was announced on Wednesday night. Skubal was a unanimous winner, taking home all 30 first-place votes and becoming the third consecutive unanimous AL Cy Young recipient, following Justin Verlander in 2022 and Gerrit Cole in 2023.
Skubal becomes the first Tiger to win the pitcher's hardware since Max Scherzer in 2013. Overall, Skubal's is the seventh Cy Young in Tigers franchise history. Here are the full voting results:
2024 AL Cy Young Award voting
| Pitcher | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tarik Skubal, Tigers | 30 | 210 | ||||
Seth Lugo, Royals | 14 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 93 | |
Emmanuel Clase, Guardians | 9 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 66 | |
Cole Ragans, Royals | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 48 | |
Corbin Burnes, Orioles | 3 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 47 | |
Logan Gilbert, Mariners | 1 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
Framber Valdez, Astros | 2 | 3 | 5 | 17 | ||
Kirby Yates, Rangers | 1 | 2 | ||||
Yusei Kikuchi, Astros | 1 | 1 | ||||
Cade Smith, Guardians | 1 | 1 |
Skubal indeed enjoyed a stellar breakout season for the Tigers during their surprise run to the playoffs in 2024. Across 31 starts and 192 innings, Skubal went 18-4 with an AL-leading 2.39 ERA. Skubal also led the AL in FIP (2.50) and ERA+ (170). His WAR of 6.3 led all pitchers in 2024, as did his 228 strikeouts. At midseason, Skubal was awarded his first career All-Star selection. Elsewhere, Skubal this season limited opposing hitters to an OPS of .558. He also averaged more than six innings per start, and he logged 22 quality starts in 31 trips to the mound. On three occasions, he struck out at least 10 batters in a start.
Although the Cy Young is a regular-season award, noteworthy just the same is Skubal's dominance during the playoffs. In three 2024 postseason starts, he put up a 2.37 ERA with no unearned runs allowed and 20 strikeouts against only one unintentional walk across 19 innings.
The evolution of Skubal's changeup into a dominant outpitch and platoon equalizer, achieved through grip changes and an array of drills, has helped reach his current upper tier. That offering paired with Skubal's 97 mph fastball and sinker along with his hard slider helped him to baffle and dominate hitters since the middle of the 2023 season. Since Skubal turned just 28 years of age on the day he learned of his Cy Young win, his excellence on the mound figures to continue for the foreseeable future. As such, his first Cy may not be his last.