The AL Cy Young Award winner; an argument for Garrett Crochet

Now that Yogi Berra’s signature line is history, it’s finally over, and attention can shift to post-season awards. The consequential component of any conversation is to keep attention in the house.

That is, any post-season achievement is not considered and does not enter the equation.

Enter the Mount Rushmore, minus one, of American League Cy Young Award candidates.

As ballots are collected and counted, there appears to be equal attention given to lefties Max Fried of the New York Yankees, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, and Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox. The fact that these teams did not make it out of the opening round of the 2025 postseason has no bearing on the ultimate selection.

With all awards, statistics, character, and production depend solely on games between the start of the championship season and the final day of competition.

The envelope please …

The 2025 Cy Young award should go to 26-year-old Crochet, and his record of achievement with Boston.

Highly coveted as a free agent last winter, Crochet put his signature on a six year-$170 million Red Sox contract. That was coming off a 6-12, 2024 season with the Chicago White Sox that included 32 starts and a 209 strikeouts effort in 146.0 innings.

The strikeout ratio catapulted Crochet to the top of the free agent food chain, and he did not disappoint.

For the 2025 Red Sox, the 6-6, 245-pounder out of Ocean Springs, Miss, gave Boston an 18-5 season in 32 starts and an AL-leading 255 strikeouts. Add durability to his equal league best of 205 innings, and this Cy Young award belongs in New England.

“Over the course of the season, a few things have worked,” Crochet said after a late-season start in Tampa. “It’s been the velo (velocity), location, hitter education, location. A little of everything.”

Toss in an intelligent approach that makes his arsenal that much more commanding.

Crochet has the ability to shift gears and adjust. All productive players come with that mindset and the ability to go in other directions.

“At times, the four-seam (fastball) is not terribly productive,” he said. “At times, I don’t think I’ve had bad stuff but poor command. I can go with the sinker as a pivot point and make a necessary adjustment. Typically, I used the sinker to get back into counts.”

At the same time, Fried and Skubal emerge as worthy competitors.

Fried who signed the largest free-agent contract for a left-handed pitcher with New York at 8-years for $212 million, started the season with energy and dynamism.

With a no-decision against San Diego on May 7, Fried reached his lowest ERA (1.05) of the season. He did not lose his first game until dropping a 7-1 defeat to the Dodgers on May 30.  Assisting the Yankees down the stretch in reaching the postseason, Fried won seven of his final eight starts, and that lone non-win was a no-decision on Aug. 22 against Boston.

Skubal was not equally effective.

Over the final three months of the season, the native of Kingman, Ariz. went 3-4 and seven no-decisions. He reached his lowest ERA of the season at 1.99 with a 7-2 win at Baltimore on June 12. Skubal finished with an AL-leading 2.21 ERA in 31 starts.

In the National League, the Mount Rushmore of 2025 candidates include Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers.

Should Yamamoto win the Cy Young Award (went 12-8, 2.49 ERA, and 201 strikeouts in 173.2 innings for 30 starts), he would join Sandy Koufax (Dodgers, 1963) and Willie Hernandez (Tigers, 1984) as the only pitchers to win the Cy Young Award and World Series MVP in the same year.

The Cy Young awards will be announced Nov. 12 on the MLB Network.

The post The AL Cy Young Award winner; an argument for Garrett Crochet first appeared on Through The Fence Baseball.

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