Tarik Skubal ends the season with the American League Triple Crown

Tarik Skubal had a season for the ages.

The Detroit Tigers star finished the season on Sunday leading the American League in wins, ERA and strikeouts. This makes him the 21st man to win the pitching Triple Crown.

Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves is in the running to win the NL Triple Crown. He could compete in Monday’s doubleheader, which will decide the last two wild cards in the Netherlands. If Sale overcomes the statistical hurdles (his ERA is 2.38, ahead of Zack Wheeler’s 2.57 and he is certainly the best strikeout pitcher and winner this season with 225 Ks and 18 wins), it would be only the second time in the past Century that he is a pitcher have won the Triple Crown in both leagues in the same season, previously Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander in 2011.

There were also two Triple Crowns in 1924 (Walter Johnson, Dazzy Vance), 1918 (Walter Johnson, Hippo Vaughn) and 1905 (Christy Mathewson, Rube Waddell).

Sale and Skubal’s performance leaves little excitement in this year’s Cy Young voting. Since the award’s inception in 1956, no pitcher has lost the Cy Young Award after winning the Triple Crown.

Tarik Skubal was a rising star – now he’s just a star

To understand just how wild Skubal’s rise is, we have to look back almost a decade. When he pitched in the 1980s, he was hardly a prospect. His only college scholarship offer: Seattle University.

Skubal had a solid freshman year, then tore his ACL and required Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. He missed all of 2017 and had a 4.16 ERA in his senior year. His skills were still good enough to be selected by the Tigers in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

He became a top prospect with a breakout 2019 High-A and Double-A season and made his MLB debut in 2020. He was about league average in 2021 with a 4.34 ERA in 149 1/3 innings. He improved in 2022, but had his season ended early due to flexor tendon surgery. He returned in 2023 and looked good enough to become the Tigers’ Opening Day starter this season.

Skubal has reduced his ERA by more than half a run each season since his debut and is now one of the best pitchers in baseball. This increase was accompanied by an increase in speed, going from a four-seater averaging 94.4 mph as a rookie to 96.8 mph this season.

After playing a full season, Skubal made the playoffs last season 78-84, their first postseason berth since 2014. He is slated to be the Game 1 starter for Detroit against the Houston Astros.

Skubal has increased his stock almost every year since he was in high school and has endured several major surgeries to become a hitter’s nightmare. While Sale has shown this season that he still has it, Skubal may just be getting started.