Paul Skenes Becomes First Pirate to Win Team’s MVP, Cy Young Awards
Members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted on the 2025 team awards, and Pirates’ ace Paul Skenes was named as the team MVP (Roberto Clemente Award) and team Cy Young (Steve Blass Award).
Skenes was a unanimous decision on both awards and became the first Pirate pitcher to win team MVP and Cy Young honors since the Blass Award was introduced in 2012. The last Pirates pitcher to win team MVP prior to Skenes was Joel Hanrahan in 2011.
This is the second Blass Award for Skenes, who also took home the honor in 2024, the same year in which he was later crowned National League Rookie of the Year,
Through 31 starts this season, Skenes is 10-10 and leads MLB starting pitchers with a sparkling 2.03 ERA. In 181.2 innings, Skenes has struck out 209 batters and is one away from tying the franchise record for strikeouts by a right-handed pitcher in a single season (Mitch Keller in 2023).
Skenes leads the National League with a 7.4 bWAR and has held opponents to a .199/.253/.310 batting line on the season.
The 23-year-old is the frontrunner to win the 2025 National League Cy Young, which will be announced after the World Series.
Additionally, for the third season in a row, Andrew McCutchen was named the recipient of the Chuck Tanner Award, which is given to the player most cooperative with the media. McCutchen is the second player to win the award three times. McCutchen’s former teammate Neil Walker (2011, 2013-14) is the other.
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