Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal Falls from Top Spot in Pitcher Power Rankings
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Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is in the midst of another dominant season in his quest to repeat as the American League's Cy Young award winner.
A year ago, Skubal cruised to the honor by going 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts as he led the Tigers back to the postseason after a lengthy drought.
That effort would have been good enough to win the Cy Young almost any year, but a rash of injuries wiped out much of Skubal's competition.
That has not been the case in 2025, as many of the top arms in the AL are at the top of their game, even as Skubal is right in line with last year's numbers while doing even better in some areas.
Has Tarik Skubal Been Overtaken as AL's Best Pitcher?
MLB.com analyst David Adler published the latest edition of his pitcher power rankings on Thursday, and a pitcher with Detroit ties unseated Skubal from the top spot.
Houston Astros ace Hunter Brown, a native of the Motor City, checked in at No. 1 while Skubal fell to No. 2 after allowing five earned runs to the Boston Red Sox and three to the St. Louis Cardinals in his last two outings.
"The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner continues to dominate," Adler noted. "Skubal leads the AL with 79 strikeouts this season after leading the Majors with 228 a year ago. That's over 300 K's for Skubal since the start of 2024, just ahead of Zack Wheeler for the most of any pitcher."
That strikeout ability is where the southpaw has gained ground on his 2024 performance.
A season ago, Skubal struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings, and he has ramped that all the way up to 11.9 this year.
There's no question that the Tigers would love to keep Skubal around long term, and his ability to evolve even after such a dominant season makes him look like a great bet for a big extension.
Even as other pitchers in the AL like Brown, Max Fried of the New York Yankees and Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers have risen to Skubal's level this season, the Detroit ace is still a real contender to repeat as Cy Young winner.
Just because he's fallen out of the top spot of the current power rankings doesn't mean his overall status as best pitcher in the world is in question in the bigger picture.
Skubal has done more than enough to maintain that.
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Kyle Morton has covered various sports from amateur to professional level athletics. A graduate of Fordham University, Kyle specializes in MLB and NHL coverage while having previous bylines with SB Nation, The Hockey Writers, HighSchoolOT, and Sports World News. He spent time working the beat for the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes and is an avid fan of the NHL, MLB, NFL and college basketball. Enjoys the outdoors and hiking in his free time away from sports.