Paul Skenes Could Pass Rangers Ace Jacob deGrom in Weird Cy Young Club

Paul Skenes is having a fantastic season, even with his awful record, and it’s a throwback to a year Jacob deGrom won the Cy Young.

Jul 15, 2025; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; National League pitcher Paul Skenes (30) of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches in the first inning against the American League during the 2025 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers will have Jacob deGrom back in their rotation on Tuesday when they face the Athletics at Globe Life Field.

The Rangers opted to give deGrom an extended break and he took it. When the right-hander takes the baseball on Tuesday, it will be his first game since July 12 in Houston. The 37-year-old, who has had two Tommy John surgeries in his career, will have had 10 full days off.

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After suffering the injury in 2023, having the surgery and recovering last year, deGrom is back to being the pitcher he was when he won back-to-back National League Cy Youngs in 2018 and 2019 with the New York Mets.

He is 9-2 with a 2.32 ERA in 19 starts with 113 strikeouts and 24 walks in 112.1 innings. He set a modern MLB record earlier this season by pitching 14 straight games allowing six or fewer hits and two or fewer earned runs.

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Those Cy Young seasons were incredible displays for middling teams. In 2019 he went 11-8 with a 2.43 ERA. He led the National League with 255 strikeouts. But his 2018 season — when he won his first Cy Young — might have been better.

In 2018 he went 10-9 with a Major League-leading 1.70 ERA. He had 269 strikeouts and 46 walks while leading the Majors in ERA+ (218), FIP (1.98) and home runs per nine innings (0.4). deGrom was unhittable on a fourth-place team.

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He was a hard-luck starter. That’s something Pittsburgh Pirates starter Paul Skenes knows something about.

Skenes, a second-year starter, was the National League All-Star Game starter for the second straight year and he’s having a terrific season.

He has an MLB-leading 2.01 ERA, 213 ERA+ and home runs per nine innings (0.4). He allowed nine earned runs in his last eight starts before the All-Star break. He is winless in 13 starts in which he’s allowed two or fewer runs.

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He even has a complete game, 131 strikeouts and 30 walks a year after winning the NL rookie of the year award and finishing third in NL Cy Young voting.

He also has a putrid record — 4-8. That is because the Pirates haven’t even won 40 games yet this season.

That could end up putting Skenes in deGrom’s company. According to USA Today writer Bob Nightengale, Skenes could win the Cy Young and do so while breaking deGrom’s record of fewest wins for a Cy Young winner, which he set in 2018 with 10 victories.

It would be a dubious honor for Skenes — and release deGrom from holding it.

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