It is always fun in baseball to have a race between two of MLB’s best stars en route to winning an award to hang on their mantle. This year has many different races that can go in either direction at this point in the season from the likes of Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge for the AL MVP race and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani for the NL MVP, but this piece isn’t focused on hitting it’s about prime time pitching and it focuses on two of MLB’s best American League pitchers in Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet. Both starters have been given the nod for the 2025 all star game and both are having fun seasons for their respective teams.

Let’s start with last year’s Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, who after winning the Triple Crown with an 18–4 record, 2.39 ERA, 228 strikeouts, and a league-leading 6.4 WAR, has only pushed his claim even further as one of the best pitchers in the league. This season, he’s been outstanding—putting up a 10–3 record, 2.09 ERA, 5.5 WAR in 21 games and 133.2 innings pitched. His league-leading 197 ERA+ is by far better than last year’s mark of 172, showing he’s somehow managed to elevate his game even more.

Skubal talents surprisingly are better than what his statistics suggest. He has won 10 straight decisions this year, capped off by his impressive 13 strikeout, one hit shutout he had against the Twins last month. He has achieved peak Tigers greatness as he solidified himself within elite company only Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander had with winning 10 consecutive decisions in a season as a Tiger. Tarik’s streak includes 13 scoreless appearances marked by a 1.58 ERA, over a span that stretches from early June all while posting an immaculate 8-0 record at home. His season brillance doesn’t just stop there as on May 25th against the Guardians, Skubal threw a complete game two hit shutout AKA “a Maddux”

Here is where things start to get tricky as the season a certain LHP in Boston is having is making the argument of Tarik Skubal 2nd consecutive CY Young all the more difficult. In his first year playing for the Boston faithful—and his second ‘Sox’ team overall—Garrett Crochet has racked up an impressive 4.7 WAR in just 22 games. He leads all of MLB with 141.1 innings pitched, sporting a 12–4 record, 2.23 ERA, 175 strikeouts, and a 1.090 WHIP. His ERA+ sits at a dominant 186, showing just how elite he’s been in his debut season for the Red Sox. The hard throwing lefty is showcasing his talent fast as the production he’s shown already is in the same eshelon of dominance as Pedro Martinez and Chris Sale. Ironically, similar to Chris Sale’s success in Boston, both pitchers came the White Sox in a big trade to send the respective leftys to display their electric talents on a bigger spotlight.

Some notable features for Crochet include a seven inning, one run and 12 strikeout perfomance against the Braves to lower his season ERA up to that point to 1.98. Another perfomance came against the Dodgers on July 26th when he struck out 10 batters while only surrending two runs. It was his fifth outing of the year with atleast 10 strikeouts and less than 2 earned runs over a minimum of six innings. Garrett should be recognized for more than just his talents this year, after recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2022 his rise from one of the best AL relievers to the top starting pitchers of the game reflects how quickly he turned things around and how quickly he put the Red Sox on his shoulder when he arrived.

The success between the two Michelin star quality pitchers has led to the argument of who deserves it more. There can be an arguement made for both stars of their recogniton for the AL CY Young award but the fact that there is a race for one of the most c postions in the league this late in the season only does wonders for MLB’s national recogntion. From one intricate star to another, both Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet deliver the excellence they need to succeed. It will be fascinating to see where these lefty pitchers stand towards the end of the season but I look forward to seeing a battle of the best between the two. Recency bias would push Skubal towards his second CY Young in two years but Crochet is making a serious case to be the first Red Sox to take home to award since Rick Porcello in 2016. Until then, push past the narratives—both of these pitchers deserve the award and continue to prove it every time they take the mound.