Both pitchers who led their leagues in Box-Toppers points for the season won the 2025 Cy Young Awards on Wednesday.
Box-Toppers Cy Young Award ballot
Here is a look at Box-Toppers’ 2025 Cy Young ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) awards. The ballot requires votes out to five places for each leagues’ top pitcher.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2025.
| AL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | 22.1 |
| 2 | Garrett Crochet | Red Sox | 19.8 |
| 3 | Bryan Woo | Mariners | 18.0 |
| 4 | Luis Castillo | Mariners | 16.1 |
| 5 | Max Fried | Yankees | 14.4 |
| NL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | 21.1 |
| 2 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | 20.1 |
| 3 | Nick Pivetta | Padres | 17.7 |
| 4 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | 17.7 |
| 5 | Jesús Luzardo | Phillies | 17.4 |
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, who led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points, won the American League Cy Young Award. Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, who led National League players with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young Award.
A look at Box-Toppers’ Cy Young ballot.
A look at AL Cy Young voting and how candidates fared in Box-Toppers points.
A look at NL Cy Young voting and how candidates fared in Box-Toppers points.
The awards are voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Votes are cast at the end of the regular season, before the start of the postseason, and were announced Wednesday.
AL Cy Young
Skubal picked up 26 of the 30 first-place votes from baseball writers to win his second straight AL Cy Young Award.
His 22.1 Box-Toppers points, which led all players, were ahead of overall second-place player Skenes (21.1) and ahead of second-place AL pitcher, Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox (19.8 points, fourth overall). Crochet finished second in AL Cy Young voting, picking up the other four first-place votes.
Skubal’s 22.1 Box-Toppers points were his highest single-season total in his career, just ahead of the 21.1 he earned in 2024, when he won his first Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote.
Skubal led the AL in earned run average (2.21) and led all pitchers with a 0.891 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). He ranked second among AL pitchers in strikeouts (241) behind Crochet (255).
He won Player of the Game honors 15 times during the regular season, including winning overall Player of the Day honors five times and AL Player of the Day honors three times. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for each Player of the Game honor, a bonus 1.0 point for each Player of the Day honor and a bonus 0.7 points for each league Player of the Day honor. (Skubal also won Player of the Game honors once in the postseason, but no Box-Toppers points are awarded in postseason games, plus voting on awards happens before the playoffs begin.)
Skubal is also Box-Toppers’ choice for AL Most Valuable Player, an award he is unlikely to win. But in cases in which the league’s top pitcher has more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as the league’s top batter, I choose pitchers for the award over batters. Box-Toppers’ top-ranked AL batter George Springer of the Blue Jays earned 9.7 Box-Toppers points in 2025, the lowest total to lead any category since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, and less than half of Skubal’s 2025 total. In the 31 seasons of Box-Toppers tracking (which began in 1995), there have been 62 instances of MVP voting, including this season’s. This is the 12th instance of a league top pitcher having more than double the points of a league top batter. (Here are the other 11 instances).
How other top AL pitchers fared in Cy Young voting
Finishing third in AL Cy Young voting was Astros pitcher Hunter Brown, whose 13.4 Box-Toppers points ranked ninth among AL pitchers.
Box-Toppers’ third-place ballot choice for AL Cy Young, Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo, finished fifth in voting. Woo earned 18.0 Box-Toppers points in 2025, third among AL pitchers, and is a key reason why his teammate Cal Raleigh, a favorite for AL Most Valuable Player, is not on Box-Toppers’ AL MVP ballot. In 2025, Woo beat teammate Raleigh for Player of the Game honors in four Mariners wins in which Raleigh had an otherwise seemingly dominant Box-Toppers game score of +3.0 or better. Woo earned 6.0 of his 18.0 Box-Toppers points in those wins. Had Raleigh earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point in each of those wins, his 6.0 Box-Toppers point total, 24th among AL batters, would have been boosted to 10.0, enough to lead AL batters in 2025.
Among the top five AL pitchers in 2025 Box-Toppers points, only Luis Castillo of the Mariners did not receive AL Cy Young votes. Castillo’s 16.1 Box-Toppers points in 2025 was fourth among AL pitchers. Max Fried of the Yankees, fifth among AL pitchers with 14.4 Box-Toppers points, finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting.
One relief pitcher, Aroldis Chapman of the Red Sox, received AL Cy Young votes, finishing seventh. Chapman earned 6.0 Box-Toppers points in 2025, 55th among AL pitchers (lowest-ranking of all AL Cy Young vote recipients) and fourth among AL closing pitchers. Jeff Hoffman of the Blue Jays led AL closers with 8.0 Box-Toppers points in 2025.
NL Cy Young
Skenes won the NL Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote, with support from all 30 voting baseball writers.
His 21.1 Box-Toppers points led all NL players and ranked second overall, behind Skubal’s 22.1.
Skenes led all pitchers with a 1.97 earned run average. He struck out 216, second-most in the NL and his 187 2/3 innings pitched were fourth in the NL. He was also 2024 Rookie of the Year, a season in which he finished third in NL Cy Young voting. He earned 13.0 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 10th among NL pitchers and second among NL rookies (behind the 20.7 by Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga).
Skenes squeaked by Wheeler in Box-Toppers rankings
While Skenes is likely seen as the runaway winner of the award this season, it was a very tight race that he barely won in Box-Toppers rankings. Pirates batters often didn’t give him run support, so there were four times in 2025 that Skenes recorded a Box-Toppers game score of +10.0 or better, in which he did not earn Player of the Game honors because the Pirates lost.
Skenes finished just ahead of Philies pitcher Zack Wheeler, whose 20.1 Box-Toppers points was still leading NL pitchers in the final week of the season even though Wheeler had been out injured since mid-August.
Wheeler led NL pitchers from May 11 until Skenes passed him Sept. 24. Wheeler last earned Player of the Game honors Aug. 10, went on the injured list Aug. 16 with a diagnosed blood clot and was ruled out for the season on Aug. 23 with a diagnosis of venous thoracic outlet syndrome.
Even in the midst of Skenes’ final start on Sept. 24 against the Reds, it appeared as if the Pirates might lose, which would have meant Wheeler would finish the season first among NL pitchers.
Skenes pitched six scoreless innings, striking out seven, recording a +9.0 Box-Toppers game score and was seemingly en route to easily securing Player of the Game honors. But the Reds tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning after Skenes exited. The Pirates, however, scored a run to win in 11 innings. Had the Reds prevailed, Skenes would not have won Player of the Game honors and Wheeler’s 20.1 Box-Toppers points would have ranked ahead of Skenes’ 20.1 points on a tiebreaker—Wheeler had more 2024 points than Skenes, 21.4 vs. 13.0.
Even though Wheeler’s 20.1 Box-Toppers points ranked second among NL pitchers and third overall, he received only one fifth-place vote Wednesday, finishing ninth in NL Cy Young voting.
Skenes earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 16 times in 2025, including winning overall Player of the Day honors three times (worth 2.0 total points) and NL Player of the Day honors three times (worth 1.7 total points). Wheeler earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 15 times in 2025, one fewer than Skenes.
Other top NL pitchers in Cy Young voting
Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez finished second in NL Cy Young voting, picking up all 30 second-place votes. Sánchez earned 15.4 Box-Toppers points in 2025, seventh among NL pitchers.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto finished third in NL Cy Young voting. His 17.7 Box-Toppers points in 2025 were fourth among NL pitchers. Yamamoto also won Player of the Game honors five times in the postseason, more than any other player, however, voting for the awards takes place before the postseason begins.
Two others who are among Box-Toppers’ top five NL pitchers in 2025 also received Cy Young votes:
Nick Pivetta of the Padres, whose 17.7 Box-Toppers points were third among NL pitchers, finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting.
Jesús Luzardo of the Philies, whose 17.4 Box-Toppers points were fifth among NL pitchers, finished seventh in NL Cy Young voting.
Skubal, Skenes win in IBWAA Cy Young voting
Box-Toppers votes in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) Cy Young Awards voting, which also picked Skubal and Skenes as top pitchers.
American League
1st Place: Tarik Skubal, Tigers—195 points
2nd Place: Garrett Crochet, Red Sox—132 points
3rd Place: Hunter Brown, Astros—65 points
National League
1st Place: Paul Skenes, Pirates—210 points
2nd Place: Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies—98 points
3rd Place: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers—55 points
IBWAA members include more than 800 baseball writers and content creators. Voting for full-season awards takes place prior to the start of the postseason each year, with selections announced in November.
About Box-Toppers
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day. (No Box-Toppers points are awarded in postseason games.)
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Related
American League Cy Young Award voting
Tarik Skubal of the Tigers was voted 2025 AL Cy Young Award winner as the league’s top pitcher. He also ranked first among AL pitchers in 2025 Box-Toppers points (22.1). Below are the AL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2025 and their rank in points among AL pitchers.| AL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | pi sp | 26 | 4 | 198 | 22.1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Garrett Crochet | Red Sox | pi sp | 4 | 26 | 132 | 19.8 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Hunter Brown | Astros | pi sp | 24 | 3 | 2 | 80 | 13.4 | 9 | ||
| 4 | Max Fried | Yankees | pi sp | 6 | 20 | 3 | 61 | 14.4 | 5 | ||
| 5 | Bryan Woo | Mariners | pi sp | 5 | 16 | 26 | 18.0 | 3 | |||
| 6 | Carlos Rodón | Yankees | pi sp | 2 | 1 | 5 | 13.7 | 8 | |||
| 7 | Aroldis Chapman | Red Sox | pi cp | 4 | 4 | 6.0 | 55 | ||||
| 8 | Jacob deGrom | Rangers | pi sp | 2 | 2 | 11.0 | 20 | ||||
| 9 | Trevor Rogers | Orioles | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 11.7 | 17 | ||||
| 9 | Drew Rasmussen | Rays | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 11.4 | 25 |
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National League Cy Young Award voting
Paul Skenes of the Pirates was voted 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner as the league’s top pitcher. He also ranked first among NL pitchers in 2025 Box-Toppers points (21.1). Below are the NL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2025 and their rank in points among NL pitchers.| NL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | pi sp | 30 | 210 | 21.1 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Cristopher Sánchez | Phillies | pi sp | 30 | 120 | 15.4 | 7 | ||||
| 3 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | pi sp | 16 | 11 | 2 | 72 | 17.7 | 4 | ||
| 4 | Logan Webb | Giants | pi sp | 10 | 6 | 5 | 47 | 9.0 | 23 | ||
| 5 | Freddy Peralta | Brewers | pi sp | 4 | 11 | 10 | 44 | 14.7 | 8 | ||
| 6 | Nick Pivetta | Padres | pi sp | 7 | 7 | 17.7 | 3 | ||||
| 7 | Jesús Luzardo | Phillies | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 5 | 17.4 | 5 | |||
| 8 | Andrew Abbott | Reds | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 4 | 10.7 | 15 | |||
| 9 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 20.1 | 2 |
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