Tigers' Tarik Skubal unanimously wins AL Cy Young Award after dominant season

Chris Sale was one of the ace left-handers Tarik Skubal idolized as a teenager. Now the two will be linked forever after winning their first Cy Young Awards on Wednesday.

Skubal was a unanimous pick for the American League honour following a brilliant season with the Detroit Tigers. Sale's selection in the National League capped an incredible comeback with Atlanta after the 35-year-old had been derailed by injuries since helping Boston win the 2018 World Series.

Skubal and Sale shared the MLB lead with 18 wins this season and dominated their respective leagues.

Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, was 18-4 with a 2.39 earned-run average and a big league-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts. The left-hander got all 30 first-place votes in AL balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America that was completed before the playoffs.

Detroit now has six Cy Young Awards. Denny McLain won back-to-back in 1968 and 1969, and reliever Willie Hernandez was the 1984 winner. Justin Verlander's Cy Young Award with the Tigers came two years before Max Scherzer won in 2013.

Skubal had Tommy John surgery at Seattle University before the Tigers drafted him in the ninth round in 2018. His made his big-league debut in 2020, and this season went at least six innings in 25 of his 31 outings. He was 6-0 in his first nine starts and finished the season the same way -- 6-0 in his last nine starts while the Tigers made their surprising push to the playoffs.

He made his post-season debut with 17 consecutive scoreless innings before a five-run fifth that included a grand slam by Cleveland's Lane Thomas in the deciding Game 5 of their AL Division Series. That 7-3 loss ended the Tigers' season.

"I was able to kind of get over it relatively quickly just because I was so proud of our team and what we were able to accomplish," Skubal said. "And if I'm going to be the one to fail, I love that, because, you know, it's only going to set our team up to have success in the future."

Sale went 18-3 and topped the NL with 225 strikeouts, while his 2.38 ERA in 29 starts was the best among all major league qualifiers. It was his first season in the NL during a big league career that began in 2010 with the Chicago White Sox.

"It means a lot. It's a special night," Sale said. "I just can't express how thankful I am for everybody that stuck by me. It would have been easy to jump ship and write me off."

Sale received 26 firsts, with NL runner-up Zack Wheeler from Philadelphia getting the other four.

Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes finished third, two days after being selected NL rookie of the year. Kansas City starter Seth Lugo was the AL runner-up, with Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase (47 saves) coming third.

Sale didn't have any major injury issues in his Atlanta debut until he was scratched because of back spasms from their final regular-season game, which they needed to win to make the playoffs. He was then left off the roster for their Wild Card Series loss to San Diego.

Atlanta acquired Sale in a trade last December after he made only 31 starts for the Red Sox from 2021-23. He missed the 2020 season and most of 2021 after Tommy John surgery. He made only two starts in 2022 after he fractured a rib and then broke his left pinkie. He broke his right wrist riding a bicycle in August 2023, ending his final season with Boston.

Sale was named the NL comeback player of the year last week at Major League Baseball's All-MLB Awards Show.

Sale won the eighth Cy Young Award for the Atlanta organization. Most of those came in the 1990s, when Greg Maddux won three in a row from 1993-95. after being the 1992 winner with the Chicago Cubs. Tom Glavine won twice (1991 and 1998), and John Smoltz was the 1996 winner. Warren Spahn was the first in 1957 when Atlanta played in Milwaukee.

Roki Sasaki likely to sign after Jan. 15

Roki Sasaki's posting will likely extend into the 2025 international signing period, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday, allowing teams as much as $7,555,500 US to sign the prized Japanese pitcher.

If Sasaki signed this year, his maximum bonus would be $2,502,500 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Pacific League's Chiba Lotte Marines said on Nov. 9 they will post the hard-throwing 23-year-old right-hander. Under the agreement between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball, the posting period runs from Nov. 1 until Dec. 15 and players have 45 days following the posting to reach an agreement. Sasaki has not yet been posted.

Sasaki was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games this year, striking out 129 hitters in 111 innings. During his 2023 start for Japan against the Czech Republic in the World Baseball Classic, 21 of his pitches were over 100 miles per hour.

Baseball's international signing period runs from Jan. 15 until Dec. 15 and most teams allocated most or all of their bonus pool this year to Latin American prospects in January.

The Dodgers have kept the most available money left in their 2024 signing bonus pool, causing some officials on other teams to speculate whether a deal with Sasaki was already in place. On the day before the World Series began, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman refused to answer a question about the amount left available.

If a team has an unofficial deal with a Latin American prospect for a 2025 contract, the club could back out of the deal to free up pool space to try to sign Sasaki.

Pirates hire ex-Jays assistant hitting coach

The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Matt Hague as their hitting coach, bringing him back to the team that drafted him in 2008.

Hague replaces Andy Haines, who was fired after Pittsburgh finished in the bottom 10 in the majors in every significant statistical category last season, including runs (24th) and home runs (25th), while also striking out a club-record 1,504 times, second-most in the National League behind Colorado.

The 39-year-old Hague spent last season as an assistant hitting coach with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Pirates selected Hague in the ninth round of the 2008 draft. The first baseman reached the majors in 2012 with Pittsburgh but played sparingly with the Pirates and Toronto.

Hague hit .226 with no home runs and seven RBI in 84 career major-league at-bats. He played briefly in Japan in 2016 and served as a minor leaguer in three different organizations in 2017 and 2018 before going into coaching.

Pittsburgh finished 76-86 for a second straight season due mostly to an offence that struggled to support a pitching staff that included National League rookie of the year Paul Skenes.