The Major League Baseball (MLB) 2025 season awards were announced last week as baseball celebrated the best of the best. Awards announced included Most Valuable Player (MVP), Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, and Cy Young Award (best pitcher) for each league. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) is responsible for voting for these significant honors.
The BBWAA selects 30 members to vote on each of the four awards. In addition to these, several other honors were also announced. They included the Gold Glove Awards, Silver Slugger Awards, Executive of the Year, and Comeback Player of the Year. Let’s recap the winners of the four major categories for the 2025 MLB season. In Part 1, we covered the winners of the Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards. In Part 2, we move to the two biggies, Cy Young and MVP.
Cy Young Award
National League-Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates
In just his sophomore season, Paul Skrenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates was presented the 2025 National League (NL) Cy Young Award. Not only did Skenes win the award, but he did so in grand fashion, earning all 30 of the first-place votes. This season, of course, is a continuation of his phenomenal rookie campaign when he finished third in the Cy Young balloting and was named NL Rookie of the Year. He is the third Pirate to receive the Cy Young, along with Vern Law (1960) and Doug Drabek (1990).
Skenes’ jaw-dropping 2025 stats include a 1.97 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 216 strikeouts over 187 2/3 innings. He had this to say when asked about the honor.
“Winning it is one thing. It being a unanimous decision is another. It’s pretty special. 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. In the same way, I thought about the Rookie of the Year Award last year. It’s a tremendous honor, but we play this game because we love the game. We love to pitch and to win.”
American League-Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
For the second year in a row, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal was named the American League Cy Young Award winner. He is the AL’s first repeat winner since Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000. And he is only the second Tigers hurler to win the honor twice. He ties Denny McCalin, who was also a back-to-back winner in 1968 and 1969. Skubal easily outdistanced the Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet for the trophy.
He mesmerized MLB hitters with his 100+ fastball, going 13-6, with a 2.21 ERA and a 0.891 WHIP. He struck out 241 opposing batters in 195.1 innings and had a league-leading 6.5 WAR among pitchers. His dominance was impressive, but there were periods when he was otherworldly.
He allowed only one run in four starts and 30 2/3 innings from May 25-June 12. Skubal followed that up with 19 scoreless innings from late June into early July. His finest performance of the year was a complete game two-hit shutout of the Cleveland Guardians on May 25. In that outing, he issued no walks and struck out 13 batters.
MVP
National League-Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
The sports world is running out of superlatives for the 2025 NL MVP, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Otani. This was Ohtani’s second straight MVP award and his fourth overall. The only other player in MLB history with four or more MVP trophies is Barry Bonds with seven.
His unanimous win this season was his fourth such win, and he is the only player so honored multiple times. Last year, he joined Frank Robinson as the only players who were MVPs in both leagues. And with the Dodgers’ World Series win, he joins only Joe Morgan as players who have won an MVP crown and a World Series in consecutive seasons.
For the year, Ohtani hit 55 homers, drove in 102 runs, and led the majors in runs scored with 146. His 1.014 OPS led all National League hitters, as did his .622 SLG. And on top of all that, as a pitcher, he sported a 2.47 ERA, a 1.061 WHIP, and struck out 167 batters in 132 innings.
Although not a factor in his MVP selection, Ohtani probably had the greatest performance by a player in a postseason contest. In game four of the NL Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, he hit three home runs, pitched six innings of two-hit ball, and struck out 10 Milwaukee hitters.
American League-Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
Already a New York Yankee legend, it was announced last week that outfielder Aaron Judge is the recipient of the 2025 American League (AL) MVP award. Judge just edged out Seattle Mariners’ record-breaking catcher Cal Raleigh to win his third MVP trophy.
He received 17 of 30 first-place votes and finished with 355 points. Raleigh followed close behind with the remaining 13 first-place points and a total of 335 points. He is the 13th player to be chosen as MVP three times, including three Yankees greats, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle.
In winning his third MVP trophy, he led all of MLB in OBP (.457), SLG (.688), OPS (1,145), and WAR 10.1. In repeating his MVP performance from last season, Judge won his first AL batting crown, hitting .331, while adding 53 home runs and driving in 114 runs.
His season totals would have been even higher, but he missed several games when he was placed on the 10-day injury list with a flexor strain in his right elbow. But the seven-time All-Star recovered to lead his Yankees into the AL Wild Card Series, where they defeated the Red Sox two games to one before falling to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Division Series 3-1.
Summary
The 2025 Major League Baseball campaign was exciting, dramatic, and record-breaking, all culminating in perhaps the most exciting World Series ever. The game’s stars shone brightly, leaving fans in gleeful anticipation of next season’s heroics.
