It was a spectacular night for these two southpaws.
Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers earned the most prestigious and heralded individual prize for pitchers. They were both named first-time Cy Young Award winners on Wednesday night. They are both power lefties, that can throw over 95 mph, when they have their best stuff working. They were ‘Mr. Reliable’ on the mound for playoff teams, but where the two part like the Red Sea is much more interesting. Prior to opening day, Sale appeared to be on his last leg, the Braves were wracking their brains and in a last-ditch effort they wanted to squeeze out all the juice that was still left in the 35-year-old veteran. Skubal, on the other hand, was a raw but promising up-and-comer who could have used another year of seasoning after surgery before truly contending for the Cy Young while his Tigers also seemed to be a year away from serious playoff contention.
And here they are on the big stage, a pair of elite southpaws polishing their trophies after outstanding work on the rubber in 2024.
After five seasons, the easy and obvious assumption was that Sale would hang up his cleats as one of the great pitchers of his era, but would be one of the close-but-no-cigar Cy Young candidates. Enough time had passed that this win, which once looked like a foregone conclusion, when he started his career with the Chicago White Sox, had become a total pipe dream.
A phenom from the very beginning, Sale was a first-round pick in 2010 and made his debut later that season, making 21 appearances out of the bullpen. He went into the next season with great momentum as a top-20 prospect. He was one of the better relievers in baseball in 2011, then the light bulb went on for the White Sox and they decided to move him into the rotation.
Embed from Getty ImagesSale was dominant, kicking off a seven-year run where he was a constant on the All-Star team and his average season was 14-8 with a sparkling 2.91 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 240 strikeouts in 198 innings, along with 5.6 WAR. His finishes in Cy Young voting, respectively: 6th, 5th, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 2nd and 4th. That was through his age-29 season, ending with the 2018 Red Sox World Series championship.
One of the only things missing from his resume was that elusive Cy Young Award.
Instead, he fell off a cliff in 2019, missing out on the All-Star Game and failing to get a single Cy Young vote. Then things went from bad to worse, he needed Tommy John surgery. He only returned to make nine starts in 2021. The injury bug continued to hamper him, as he made only two starts in 2022 and 20 in 2023, pitching to a subpar 4.30 ERA.
“To be able to show my sons the hard work, the dedication, not giving up. My wife having my back the whole time. I’m sure I was real peachy at times during those injuries,” Sale said. “I was talking to my dad the other day and whether it did or didn’t happen, he was proud of me.”
The Braves acquired Sale at age 35 when most players are close to the end of their careers. He had not put together a good, full season since 2018. And he went out and had one of the best seasons of his career.
“The biggest thing is health,” said Sale, who was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year last week at Major League Baseball’s All-MLB Awards Show. “I was healthy earlier in my career and I was able to sustain some success and stay out on the field. Ran into a buzz saw over the past handful of years. Just couldn’t stay healthy, couldn’t stay on the field, and you’re not doing anything when you’re not on the field.”
Back in 2010, when he first burst on the scene, a Cy Young seemed to be in his future. Maybe not a sure thing, but the pure talent was there. Fourteen years later, he finally got there.
“It’s special and I appreciate it,” Sale said. “It wasn’t just me rolling out there and throwing the baseball. There were a lot of people who got me here: teammates, family, training staff. For me to go out there and do what I was able to do, I wouldn’t have done it without them. The last few years were tough, so to go through what I went through with the support I had, I’m very thankful.”
Eerily similar to Sale, when Skubal was younger, few baseball experts would have debated a statement like, “he’s going to win a Cy Young someday.” He was regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball in 2020 and 2021. It is just that, given his catastrophic injury, if Sale’s Cy Young came late, Skubal’s came probably a year early.
On Aug. 17, 2022, Skubal underwent flexor tendon surgery in his pitching elbow. He sported a 4.15 ERA in 299 career MLB innings, which was good for a tidy 100 ERA+ (that is, he was exactly league average).
Skubal, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Wednesday, made it back to his sanctuary in 2023 and looked filthy down the stretch. In 15 starts, he was 7-3 with a 2.80 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and 102 strikeouts against only 14 walks in 80 ⅓ innings of work. Skubal was coming off major elbow surgery and barely managed 80 innings. Given that he threw 117 ⅔ in 2022 and a career high 149 ⅓ in 2021, any Cy Young discussion would likely have been reserved for 2025.
“It was a ton of fun to be part of,” Skubal said. “The last two months of our season and even the postseason was very special. The memories and the experience will obviously help our club going forward, and I’m glad we got to experience it as a team and as a young team.”
Of course, it was expected that Skubal would be good in 2024, but what kind of workload could he carry on his shoulders and would be permitted by the Tigers, especially since it was possible they would not be a contender. What if they traded him at the deadline?
Instead, Skubal worked 192 innings and the Tigers kept him. He went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA (170 ERA+), 0.92 WHIP and 228 strikeouts against only 35 walks. He led all pitchers in strikeouts and WAR, with 6.3, while pacing the AL in wins and ERA.
“It’s special,” Skubal said. “All the hard work, all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, moments like this make it extremely worth it.”
It is possible that there will be more hardware to come in Skubal’s future, but it is understood, thanks to pre-2024 Chris Sale, just how difficult it is to win this award.
What we had on Wednesday is two winners, one who rose to prominence after a five-year hiatus of contention and one who arrived a year ahead of schedule. And neither is ready to ride off into the sunset yet.
