On his 28th birthday, Tarik Skubal has been crowned the best pitcher in the American League.
Skubal was named AL Cy Young at the 2024 MLB Awards on Wednesday night. He's the first Tigers pitcher to win the award since Max Scherzer in 2013, beating out finalists Seth Lugo of the Royals and reliever Emmanuel Clase of the Guardians.
There was little doubt that Skubal would take home the hardware. He's fresh off winning the AL pitching Triple Crown by leading the league in ERA (2.39), wins (18) and strikeouts (228), the first pitcher to do that in a full season since none other than Justin Verlander in 2011.
Since 1946, only three other pitchers have won a full-season AL pitching Triple Crown: Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana.
Skubal was dominant from start to finish this year. With the way PitchCom relays the signs between pitcher and catcher, Jake Rogers said that catching him literally "feels like a video game."
"It's like, I don't care which button I push, it's going to be in the zone and it's going to get weak contact or punch. He was dotting, man, all year, dominant. It's an incredible season. And I'm super happy for him because he's an awesome human, even better talent, which is hard to do. It was fun to watch in the best seat," Rogers said.
Maybe the best tribute to Skubal is this: the Tigers went 21-10 this year when he started, 65-66 when he didn't. They were either one of the best teams in baseball, or wholly mediocre. Skubal allowed one run or fewer in more than half of his 31 starts, two or fewer in more than three quarters of them.
"Guys around the league would ask, 'How is it catching him?' Rogers said. "And I don't even know if I can really answer other than, he's just all year been on cruise control."
