The 2025 MLB season is officially over and now, instead of the regular season, it’s awards season. The Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers have been awarded, and the voting panel has selected the rookies and managers of the year. But there is still a lot to do and the Yankees are still involved.
The Cy Young Award is the most prestigious honor an MLB pitcher can earn. Yankees left-hander Max Fried has been involved in talks since the start of the regular season, although an uneven middle month or two seemingly knocked him out of the race for the top spot. Now, with the voting over, the winner was effectively the favorite: Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers. He was selected for the second consecutive season and is the first consecutive winner in the American League since Pedro MartÃnez in 1999-2000. Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes was the unanimous winner in the National League.
BBWAA writers were allotted five spots on their ballots. Here’s the points breakdown for every American League pitcher who received votes:
Just outside the top three behind Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown, Fried finished fourth, thanks to six third-place votes. Another Yankee lefty, Carlos Rodón, finished sixth in the voting. Both had been named to the American League All-Star team in July.
Fried finished the season with solid numbers, including a 2.86 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 3.41 xFIP, and 4.8 fWAR in 195.1 innings pitched. The 31-year-old won 19 games on the season, leading all MLB starters in the traditional statistic. Fried’s 2.86 ERA was also good for eighth in the MLB (as was his fWAR), with Skubal leading the American League with a 2.21 mark. This is his third time finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting, having done so twice during his days in Atlanta. He was fifth in 2020 and then runner-up to unanimous winner Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins in 2022.
As for Rodón, this is also the third time he has earned Cy votes, although his voting has been more distant, finishing fifth and sixth for the 2021 White Sox and 2022 Giants, respectively. Unfortunately, the ALDS didn’t reflect it, but for much of the 2025 season, he formed a strong duo with Fried at the top of New York’s rotation. Rodón was second to Fried with 18 wins, proving durable for the second consecutive season by tying for the American League lead in starts (33) while posting a 3.09 ERA and leading the Junior Circuit with 6.1 H/9. It was difficult to make good contact against the 32-year-old, who was fourth in the American League with 203 strikeouts, the second 200-K season of his career.
Despite not winning the award, Fried performed as well as anyone could have asked for under the circumstances: entering a new environment, team and clubhouse along with the fact that the Yankees’ true ace, Gerrit Cole (the 2023 American League Cy Young), would be out for the entire season. A fourth place finish is nothing to scoff at, and the same can be said for a sixth place finish for Rodón. Congratulations to both of you!