Astros Pitcher Predicted To Unseat Superstar for Major Award in 2026

When Houston Astros general manager Dana Brown let Framber Valdez walk in free agency over the winter, he knew that he had an ace in Hunter Brown to headline his rotation.

The writing was on the wall that Valdez had thrown his last pitch for the Astros and was going to be pitching somewhere else in 2026.

He ended up signing with the Detroit Tigers. Before he signed with the Tigers, Dana Brown had found his replacement in Japanese star Tatsuya Imai and he also traded for Mike Burrows from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Whether those moves end up working out or not remains to be seen. However, there is no debating who the ace of the staff is. Hunter Brown is expected to have a big season and one MLB writer thinks he will walk away with some impressive hardware when all is said and done in 2026.

Astros Pitcher Hunter Brown Predicted To Win 2026 AL Cy Young Award

Houston Astros pitcher Hunter Brown — Hunter Brown | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Keith Law of The Athletic (subscription required) made some MLB award predictions for the 2026 season. He predicted Hunter Brown to pull off a shocker and unseat two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.

"Rather than pick Tarik Skubal again, or even Garrett Crochet, who has made 64 starts the last two years after barely pitching at all in 2022-23 around Tommy John surgery and has a prior history of shoulder trouble, I looked for a pitcher who looks like he might be on the cusp of this kind of production. Brown has the power stuff to miss bats, and his command and control keep improving. I expect his strikeout rate to go up this year, making up for some regression in his BABIP and strand rate,'' Law wrote.

Last season, Hunter Brown finished third in the AL Cy Young voting behind Skubal and Crochet of the Boston Red Sox. Hunter Brown had a season that many outside of Houston might not realize how good it was. He only went 12-9 in 31 starts with a 2.43 ERA in 185.1 innings with 206 strikeouts and just 57 walks. He had a 6.1 WAR and allowed only 50 earned runs. Those numbers would usually be good enough to win a Cy Young Award, but not when you're pitching in the same league as Skubal and Crochet.

If Hunter Brown can come close to doing what he did last year, Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada would be thrilled. In his first start on Opening Day against the Los Angeles Angels, he struck out nine, scattered four hits and walked four in 4.2 innings. It's just one start and he'll get stronger and better as the season goes along.