Paul Skenes now has both a Cy Young Award and a lot more cash in his pocket.
The Pittsburgh Pirates ace Skenes was officially named the NL Cy Young Award winner for the 2025 MLB season on Wednesday night. Skenes was revealed to have taken all 30 first-place votes, making him the first unanimous winner of the award since Miami’s Sandy Alcantara in 2022.
Paul Skenes had a superb sophomore season!
— MLB (@MLB) November 13, 2025
He is your 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner! pic.twitter.com/ewLlvB4MS7
Paul Skenes wins NL Cy Young unanimously! pic.twitter.com/hGFc75GnZT
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) November 13, 2025
Ethan Hullihen of Baseball America pointed out that Skenes earned a monster bonus with his Cy Young victory. Skenes, as a pre-arbitration player, will now be taking home a sum of $2.5 million.
That's a cool $2.5M bonus for Skenes https://t.co/IAV1Ii4VX3 pic.twitter.com/nvoKtM4te1
— Ethan Hullihen (@EthanHullihen) November 13, 2025
$2.5 million is a monster figure for Skenes when you consider that he only made a base salary of $875,000 this season (though Skenes made $2.7 million in total last season and earned a record signing bonus of $9.2 million when he first signed with the Pirates in 2023).
Still only 23 years old, Skenes has cemented himself as the best pitcher in the National League as well as arguably the best pitcher in all of baseball right now. He led MLB this season with a pristine 1.97 ERA and also submitted an elite 216 strikeouts over 32 total starts.
There is plenty of uncertainty about Skenes’ long-term future (and we even heard earlier in the day that he might want to leave Pittsburgh for one specific team upon becoming eligible for free agency in 2029). But at least for now, Skenes is enjoying a nice appetizer of a bonus before he inevitably becomes really expensive.
