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This is Tarik Skubal’s first Cy Young honor. The Tigers star was unanimously declared the AL Cy Young by the Baseball Writers Association of America. All 30 votes for first place went to him. Seth Lugo of Kansas City finished second, while Emmanuel Clase, a closer for Cleveland, completed the top three.

It was always clear that Skubal would take home the prize. The AL’s pitching Triple Crown went to the hard-throwing southpaw, who turns 28 on Wednesday. With a 2.39 ERA over 192 innings, he was the Junior Circuit’s top pitcher.

He led the major leagues in both strikeouts (228) and victories (18). Since he never let an ERA rise above 3.05 in a single month, Skubal was essentially in control from beginning to end. He earned his first selection to the Midsummer Classic with a 2.41 mark going into the All-Star break.

Skubal, the linchpin of a Detroit rotation that was stitched together following the Jack Flaherty deadline deal, pitched 76 innings of 2.37 ERA ball after the break. The Tigers’ Cinderella run to a wild card in the second half was largely due to him. In the penultimate weekend of the regular season, he essentially guaranteed Detroit would secure a postseason berth with seven scoreless innings in a 2-1 victory over the Rays.

For the first time, Skubal reached 150 innings in a season. With a 3.52 ERA and a ton of strikeouts in 21 starts in 2022, he appeared to be a rising star.

That season ended due to a late-season flexor injury. After undergoing surgery in August, Skubal was sidelined until July 23. He finished the season with 15 starts, striking out 102 hitters with a 2.80 ERA. Going into 2024, Skubal was a popular preseason Cy Young selection. That promise was more than fulfilled by him.

This week was Lugo’s 35th birthday, and he enjoyed his best season to date. He pitched 206 2/3 innings with an equal 3.00 ERA. Lugo, a former reliever who didn’t return to the rotation until the 2023 season, pitched more innings than anybody else save Logan Gilbert. In the first season of a three-year, $45 million free-agent contract, the Royals fared exceptionally well. One of the main reasons K.C. ended their own nine-year postseason drought was Lugo’s outstanding season.

As a reliever, Clase had one of the best seasons ever. The closer for the Guardians pitched 74 1/3 innings with an ERA of 0.61. In 50 tries, he secured 47 saves. For three consecutive seasons, Clase has led the major leagues in saves. He served as the cornerstone of the Cleveland bullpen, which helped the Guardians win the AL Central. He is the first reliever to place in the top three on the Cy Young voting since Francisco Rodríguez in 2008.

Five pitchers finished second on at least one poll, but Skubal held a monopoly on first-place votes. In addition to Lugo and Clase, second-place votes went to Gilbert, Corbin Burnes, and Cole Ragans. Only one other pitcher, Framber Valdez, received a vote in the top three. Yusei Kikuchi, Cleveland rookie reliever Cade Smith, and Kirby Yates all showed up in fourth or fifth place on one ballot.