On a day when Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington dismissed trade talk about his ace with the declaration that “Paul Skenes is going to be a Pirate in 2026,” he has some additional incentive: For the first time in 35 years, the Pirates now have a Cy Young Award winner atop their starting rotation.

The 23-year-old right-hander was an unanimous winner of the award honoring the best pitcher in the National League on Wednesday night, earning all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Skenes will receive the trophy at the BBWAA Awards Dinner on Jan. 24 in New York City.

“Winning it is one thing; it being a unanimous decision is another. It’s pretty special,” Skenes said on a video conference call with Pittsburgh media. “The Cy Young Award is the Cy Young Award. Every baseball fan knows it. I’ve had a month to think about it now, after the season ended and what would it mean. That’s the answer I’ve come upon, is that it doesn’t change anything about the season that I had whether I win it or not.”

Even so, Skenes made history by becoming the first starting pitcher to win it with a record of .500 or worse. The 6-foot-6, 260-pounder was 10-10 but dominant in every other statistical category: He recorded 20 quality starts and led the majors with a 1.97 ERA, 217 ERA+ and 2.36 FIP. Using a seven-pitch repertoire, Skenes led the NL with a 0.948 WHIP and set a franchise record for strikeouts (216) by a right-hander while allowing only 42 walks and 11 home runs in 1872⁄3 innings over 32 starts.

“Obviously, the voting’s evolved, not just in this award, but all the awards,” Skenes said. “It’s going to continue to evolve. It shows what’s valued in this game on an individual level. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I’ll leave that up to (the media). Clearly, wins and losses aren’t valued as much as they used to be — and that’s our job, to win. It’s kind of an interesting thing to think about.”

The other NL Cy Young finalists were Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (13-5, 2.50 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 212 strikeouts) and Los Angeles Dodgers righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 201 strikeouts), who was the World Series MVP.

Detroit Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal won the American League Cy Young for the second consecutive season, becoming the first back-to-back winner since Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox in 1999-2000. The other AL finalists were Houston’s Hunter Brown and Boston’s Garrett Crochet.

Winning the Cy Young completes an amazing two-year run for Skenes, who went from two-way player at the U.S. Air Force Academy to leading LSU to the College World Series championship and was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft. He started the All-Star Game and won NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2024, when he finished third in Cy Young voting. After being promoted to the majors in mid-May, Skenes went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 0.947 WHIP and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings over 23 starts (15 quality starts) as a rookie.

Earlier in the day, Cherington had to address trade rumors at the GM meetings in Las Vegas after an NJ.com report said Skenes told teammates that he wants to play for the New York Yankees.

“I’m on the Pirates; my goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the City of Pittsburgh. The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh, and I want to be a part of the group that did that,” Skenes said. “The way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the group, a part of the 26 guys that change that. I don’t know where that came from. The goal is to win. I don’t know the reporter that reported it. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that, but the goal is to win — and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”

Skenes becomes the third Pirates pitcher to win the award. He joined Vern Law (1960) and Doug Drabek (1990), who made the announcement that Skenes was the winner on the MLB Network broadcast. Skenes told MLB Network that the award was beyond his wildest dreams as a kid.

“As I look back on my path in baseball to this point, I got recruited to college as a catcher. I kept growing and started pitching and got better on the mound. I never thought I’d end up here, never thought I’d be in the major leagues, much less winning a Cy Young,” Skenes said. “It doesn’t always work out how you think it’s going to but if you stay the course, surround yourself with good people, you work hard — that’s the minimum — you’re going to do what you’re supposed to, whatever that looks like.”

Aged 23 years and 122 days when the regular season ended, Skenes is the fifth-youngest Cy Young winner, per the Elias Sports Bureau. The only younger Cy Young winners are Vida Blue (22 in 1971), Fernando Valenzuela (20 in 1981), Dwight Gooden (20 in 1985) and Bret Saberhagen (21 in 1985). Skenes joined Gooden in winning both rookie of the year and Cy Young honors in his first two MLB seasons.

Skenes isn’t the first pitcher to earn the award without a winning record — Los Angeles Dodgers closer Eric Gagne won the 2003 NL Cy Young with a 2-3 record, 1.20 ERA, 0.69 WHIP and an MLB-best 55 saves — but he was dominant in every other statistical category.

The metrics also favored Skenes, as he led the majors in pitching run value (42), ranked in the 99th percentile in fastball run value (27) and in the 97th percentile in offspeed run value (nine), per Baseball Savant.

Skenes was one of six pitchers to hold opposing hitters below the Mendoza Line, as they batted .199 against him. His 7.6 bWAR ranked fourth amongst all MLB players and second only to Sanchez (8.0) amongst all pitchers.

Skenes previously won both the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente Award as MVP and Steve Blass Award as top pitcher in voting by the Pittsburgh chapter of the BBWAA, the Baseball Digest/Inside Edge pitcher of the year award and the Players Choice Award as the NL’s top pitcher by the MLB Players Association. The Sporting News named Skenes the NL starting pitcher on its all-star team and Pitching Ninja gave him its K Strut Award for his dominance and swagger.

“Paul is incredibly deserving of the Cy Young Award and all that it represents. His preparation, competitiveness and poise reflect the toughness, heart and pride that define Pittsburgh,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “He’s a leader who holds himself to the highest standard and makes everyone around him better.

“Just as meaningful as his performance on the field is his commitment to giving back — especially his support for those who have served, and continue to serve, in our armed forces. We are incredibly proud of Paul and grateful to have someone of his character representing our organization and our city.”

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