Comparing Tarik Skubal's 2024 Cy Young season to other unanimous wins in MLB history

On Wednesday, Tarik Skubal became the ninth American League pitcher to win the Cy Young award unanimously, the first Tiger to do so since Justin Verlander in 2011. Royals starter Seth Lugo received 14 second-place votes, and Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase rounded out the finalist pool with nine second-place votes.

Even though it was basically a given that Skubal would win by an overwhelming margin, his ultimate sweep was vindicating for Tigers fans, who have had to listen to Cleveland fans make terrible arguments in favor of Clase late this season.

Skubal joins three other AL pitchers who have won by unanimous vote during this decade: Shane Bieber in 2020, Verlander in 2022, and Gerrit Cole in 2023. Denny McLain was the first to do it in 1968, then Ron Guidry (1978), Roger Clemens (1986 and 1998), Pedro Martínez (1999 and 2000), Johan Santana (2004 and 2006). Verlander, Bieber and Cole followed. Twelve NL pitchers have won unanimously (Sandy Koufax did it three times and Greg Maddux did it twice).

Skubal and Chris Sale, the NL's Cy Young winner, also both won the Triple Crown this season, joining both Bieber in 2020 and Verlander in 2011, among others, to do both in a single season.

How does Skubal's historic 2024 campaign stack up against some of these greats?

How Tarik Skubal's unanimous Cy Young win stacks up against other sweeps

It's probably easiest to start with Verlander, the last unanimous winner the Tigers have seen. In his 2011 season, he pitched a, frankly, insane 251 innings with 250 strikeouts to lead all of baseball, while managing to maintain a 2.40 ERA. Pitching 250 innings is basically unheard of now. His 2.39 ERA was almost identical to Verlander's 2011 ERA, and his 170 ERA+ was just two points lower than Verlander's, but the left-hander logged just 192 innings.

Skubal's 2024 might be most closely compared to Johan Santana's 2006 campaign with the Twins, when he made 34 starts for 233 2/3 total innings, a 2.77 ERA, and 245 strikeouts. Jake Peavy's 2007 campaign with the Padres also bears some resemblance; Peavy pitched 223 1/3 innings for a 2.54 ERA and 240 strikeouts.

None of these aces had to work under identical circumstances, but Skubal's status as both ace and, ostensibly, the Tigers' one and only starter in the late months of the season also set him far apart from this year's candidates. It was a monumental year for Skubal, and if the Tigers can get their act together, we'll hopefully see a lot more of them in Detroit.