Chris Sale was one of the ace left-handers Tarik Skubal idolized as a teenager. Now the two will be linked forever after winning their first Cy Young Awards on Wednesday.
Skubal was a unanimous pick for the American League honor following a brilliant season with the Detroit Tigers. Sale’s selection in the National League capped an incredible comeback with the Atlanta Braves after the 35-year-old had been derailed by injuries since helping Boston win the 2018 World Series.
“It means a lot. It’s a special night,” Sale said. “I just can’t express how thankful I am for everybody that stuck by me. It would have been easy to jump ship and write me off.”
Skubal and Sale shared the MLB lead with 18 wins this season and dominated their respective leagues.
Sale went 18-3 and topped the NL with 225 strikeouts, while his 2.38 ERA in 29 starts was the best among all major league qualifiers. It was his first season in the National League during a big league career that began in 2010 with the Chicago White Sox.
Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, was 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and a big league-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts. The left-hander got all 30 first-place votes in AL balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America that was completed before the playoffs.
Sale received 26 firsts, with NL runner-up Zack Wheeler from Philadelphia getting the other four.
“If you look at his career, it’s no surprise that he’s winning this award,” Skubal said about Sale. “To be able to share this award and win it the same year, and win the same triple crown award in the AL and NL, that’s something that’s really special to me, and it’s awesome. I’ll be able to live with that the rest of my life.”
Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes finished third, two days after being selected NL Rookie of the Year. Kansas City starter Seth Lugo was the AL runner-up, with Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase (47 saves) coming in third.
It was the first time since 2011 that someone won the pitching triple crown in both leagues. There have been 25 occasions when a pitcher led his league in wins, strikeouts and ERA among qualifiers — and a Cy Young Award followed all 16 times it’s happened since the prize was first presented in 1956.
Sale didn’t have any major injury issues in his Braves debut until he was scratched because of back spasms from their final regular-season game, which they needed to win to make the playoffs. He was then left off the roster for their Wild Card Series loss to San Diego.
Atlanta acquired Sale in a trade last December after he made only 31 starts for the Red Sox from 2021-23. He missed the 2020 season and most of 2021 after Tommy John surgery. He made only two starts in 2022 after he fractured a rib and then broke his left pinkie. He broke his right wrist riding a bicycle in August 2023, ending his final season with Boston.
Sale was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year last week at Major League Baseball’s All-MLB Awards Show.
“Talk about motivation, right? To be able to show my sons hard work, dedication and not giving up. My wife had my back the whole time. I’m sure I was a real peach at times during some of those injuries,” he said. “And just with my parents, my family, I was talking to my dad the other day about this and whether it did or didn’t happen, he was proud of me.”
It was the third time Sale finished among the top three in Cy Young Award voting. He was the AL runner-up in 2017 after his first season with Boston behind Corey Kluber, who was also the Cy Young Award winner in 2014 when Sale finished third with the White Sox.
Sale won the eighth Cy Young Award for the Braves organization. Most of those came in the 1990s, when Greg Maddux won three in a row with Atlanta from 1993-95 — after being the 1992 winner with the Chicago Cubs. Tom Glavine won twice (1991 and 1998), and John Smoltz was the 1996 winner. Warren Spahn was the first in 1957 when the Braves played in Milwaukee.
Detroit now has six Cy Young Awards. Denny McLain won back-to-back in 1968 and 1969, and reliever Willie Hernández was the 1984 winner. Justin Verlander’s Cy Young Award with the Tigers came two years before Max Scherzer won in 2013.
Skubal had Tommy John surgery at Seattle University before the Tigers drafted him in the ninth round in 2018. His made his big league debut in 2020, and this season went at least six innings in 25 of his 31 outings. He was 6-0 in his first nine starts and finished the season the same way — 6-0 in his last nine starts while the Tigers made their surprising push to the playoffs.
He made his postseason debut with 17 consecutive scoreless innings before a five-run fifth that included a grand slam by Cleveland’s Lane Thomas in the deciding Game 5 of their AL Division Series. That 7-3 loss ended the Tigers’ season.
“I was able to kind of get over it relatively quickly just because I was so proud of our team and what we were able to accomplish,” Skubal said. “And if I’m going to be the one to fail, I love that, because, you know, it’s only going to set our team up to have success in the future.”
Based on where they placed in balloting, Clase earned a $150,000 bonus, Sale and Lugo $100,000 each and Wheeler $50,000.
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