Comparing Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal to his Cy Young Competition for 2025
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The MLB season is officially over and while the playoff teams highlighted the offseason it is now time for the player accolades and one of the Detroit Tigers' finest is up for a major one, the Cy Young award. It is no surprise that their pitching ace Tarik Skubal is up for his second consecutive award.
The Cy Young award is given to the best pitcher in both the American and National Leagues. In 2024 Skubal was that pitcher for the AL. This year he is going up against Hunter Brown from the Houston Astros and Garret Crochet of the Boston Red Sox. This would be the first for either Brown or Crochet if they win.
Skubal vs. His Fellow Nominees
Skubal helped lead the Tigers to another trip to the AL Division Series where they faced off with the Seattle Mariners. Even though the Tigers were ultimately sent home, they rallied back from a catastrophic downfall in the second half of their season which was led by Skubal.
Skubal's season extended into October, as did Crochet's. The Astros were kept out of the playoffs in part by the Tigers. While Detroit did collapse down the stretch and lose the AL Central title, it did enough to keep the Astros out of the playoffs. But, postseason success does not play a role in who wins the Cy Young, as voting occurs right after the end of the regular season.
Skubal | Crochet | Brown | |
|---|---|---|---|
Record | 13-6 | 18-5 | 12-9 |
Innings Pitched | 195.1 | 205.1 | 185.1 |
ERA | 2.21 | 2.59 | 2.43 |
Total Earned Runs | 48 | 59 | 50 |
Hits Allowed | 141 | 165 | 133 |
Home Runs | 18 | 24 | 17 |
Hit Batters | 5 | 3 | 7 |
Walks | 33 | 46 | 57 |
Strikeouts | 241 | 255 | 206 |
WHIP | 0.89 | 1.03 | 1.03 |
Opponent's Batting Average | .200 | .217 | .201 |
Statistically speaking this is clearly going to come down to a battle between Crochet and Skubal. However, it is hard to argue anybody's case but Skubal's. The Tigers ace may have trailed in wins, but he kept runs off of the board and didn't give up big plays.
Clearly Crotchet had more strikeouts, but he spent a full 10 more innings on the mound than Skubal. With the way Skubal pitches it is hard to imagine he wouldn't have surpassed Crotchet's 255 if he had spent more than 205 innings on the mound.
Seven shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, 200 on the season. Just another night for Tarik Skubal pic.twitter.com/LhGklzbiGy
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 20, 2025
Skubal has a lower ERA, better WHIP, less walks, and held opponent's to a lower batting average. It really seems like he is the front runner for this year's award.
The Tigers have already had one of their own this year win a prestigious award, as their catcher Dillon Dingler just won his first Gold Glove award of his career. The Tigers are looking to add another player accolade to their 2025 resume, but they will not find out until Nov. 12 if their pitcher is the victor.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.