Visit The Industry’s Best

Handicapping Membership
For Free MLB Picks!

Get Free Trial

The MLB Cy Young Award is one of the most prestigious individual honors in baseball. The award recognizes the best pitchers in the American and National Leagues each season.

With the 2025 season on the verge of getting underway, bettors are looking at the latest odds to find the best value wagers. Before diving into our predictions, check out the latest World Series odds, top sports betting sites, and MLB odds in advance of the ’25 campaign.

What Is the Cy Young Award?

Named after Hall of Famer Denton “Cy” Young, the award has been given annually since 1956 to the top pitchers in each league.

Young holds the MLB record for career wins with 511, and his dominance on the mound set the standard for pitching excellence. This is arguably the most unbreakable individual record in all of American sports.

The Cy Young Award is voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) and has long been a benchmark of elite performance on the mound. While there have been a few exceptions, the Cy Young Award is almost always given to starting pitchers rather than relievers or closers.

Who Has the Most Cy Young Awards?

In MLB history, the following pitchers have won the most Cy Young Awards:

American League: Roger Clemens (7), Randy Johnson (5), Jim Palmer (3), Pedro Martinez (2), Justin Verlander (2), Corey Kluber (2), Johan Santana (2)

National League: Roger Clemens (7), Randy Johnson (5), Steve Carlton (4), Greg Maddux (4), Clayton Kershaw (3), Max Scherzer (3), Tom Seaver (3)

2025 AL Cy Young Odds

Check out the latest AL Cy Young odds:

Among the favorites, Tarik Skubal leads the pack at +380 on the heels of his first-ever Cy Young win a season ago. Jacob deGrom, despite injury concerns, is still a contender at +1400. Meanwhile, young arms like Hunter Brown and George Kirby offer intriguing value for bettors. For more expert analysis on a variety of topics, check out the best handicappers.

American League Cy Young Award Predictions

Check out our predictions for the 2025 American League Cy Young Award:

Tarik Skubal (+380)

Skubal has emerged as the favorite, and for good reason. He has showcased elite strikeout ability and excellent command, making him the pitcher to beat. If he can maintain his dominance throughout the season, he will be difficult to beat.

Skubal won the 2024 AL Cy Young Award in a landslide. He won all 30 first-place votes for a total of 210 points, which absolutely trounced the rest of the field. Kansas City’s Seth Lugo finished a distant second with 93 points in voting, including 14 2nd-place votes. Interestingly enough, Lugo is way down at +4500 to win it this year, so oddsmakers aren’t quite buying his ’24 breakout season.

Skubal, meanwhile, was easily the most dominant starter in the sport. He finished 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA for the surprising Detroit Tigers. The left-hander won the pitching triple crown for the junior circuit, leading the AL in wins, strikeouts, and ERA.

The 28-year-old is only just now entering his prime, and, barring injury, there’s little reason to believe his dominance won’t continue into the new campaign. Winning consecutive AL Cy Young Awards is difficult – it hasn’t been done since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000 – but Skubal is a worthy frontrunner at the current +380 Cy Young odds.

Garrett Crochet (+450)

A rising star, Garrett Crochet has made waves with his elite velocity and strikeout numbers. Crochet spent his career in the Chicago White Sox’ bullpen before the team made him their Opening Day starter last season. The decision paid off immediately, as the lefty struck out 8 in 6 dominant innings against Skubal’s Tigers to kick off the 2024 campaign.

This year, though, Crochet has traded his white stockings for red ones. Chicago shipped him up to Boston in exchange for a haul of prospects this offseason, and it’ll be fun to see the southpaw pitching for a legit contender after toiling away last season for one of the worst teams in the history of the sport.

The White Sox took it easy on Crochet as the season progressed, as they intentionally limited his innings considering he was a starter at the MLB level for the first time. He’s still incredibly young at 25, so his best years are likely still in front of him. Crochet posted one of the highest strikeout rates in MLB a season ago (35.1 percent), which paired nicely with a super-low walk rate (5.5 percent) and a steady ground ball rate of around 45 percent.

Pitching half of his games in the hitter’s paradise known as Fenway Park won’t be easy, but Crochet showed very few weaknesses in his first go-round as a starting pitcher. Assuming he continues his upward trajectory, you can easily argue the southpaw’s +450 AL Cy Young odds are undervaluing his talent.

Jacob deGrom (+1400)

Health is always the biggest question mark for Jacob deGrom, but when he is on the mound, he is still one of the best pitchers in the game. At +1400, he presents a high-risk, high-reward betting option.

Unfortunately, staying on the mound has been an awfully difficult task for him over the course of his career. He’s also no spring chicken, as he’ll turn 37 in June. On the bright side, deGrom’s career workload is fairly light for a pitcher of his age. He didn’t break into the majors until he was 26 years old, and he hasn’t even cracked 20 games pitched in a single season since 2019 when he was in his heyday with the New York Mets.

Last season, deGrom pitched in 3 games for the Texas Rangers after recovering from Tommy John surgery. We’re only working with a sample of 10.2 innings, but the former NL Cy Young winner pitched to a stellar 1.69 ERA with a 31.8 percent strikeout rate and a 2.3 percent walk rate. Those are close to vintage deGrom numbers. Again, though, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from such a tiny sample of data.

While I’m hopeful this is the year deGrom can finally stay healthy enough to pitch for close to a full season, I’ll have to see it before I can fully buy into it. The +1400 odds reflect a full season’s worth of work, but he hasn’t appeared in more than 15 games in a season in over a half-decade. I’d wait for the odds to fall before getting in on deGrom. Even if he’s still dominant, I’d rather not take a hard position in favor of his chances given the long injury history.

2025 AL Cy Young Longshot

The Seattle Mariners have an entire rotation’s worth of Cy Young candidates, while the Houston Astros also have a couple of potential contenders. The player who stands out the most based on these odds is Houston’s Hunter Brown (+2500), who quietly enjoyed a breakout season in 2024.

Brown was previously one of the Astros’ top prospects, and we finally saw why a season ago. The 26-year-old went 11-9 with a 3.49 ERA across 31 games. The 3.49 ERA is particularly impressive when you take into account Brown’s early-season struggles. His ERA was pushing 12 entering the month of May, but he posted a mark of no higher than 3.42 in any of the season’s subsequent 5 months.

Expectations are high for Brown entering 2025, and rightfully so. His strikeout rate isn’t as high as that of Skubal, but his 26.5 percent K-rate a season ago was still above-average. Brown is also terrific at keeping the ball on the ground (48.9 percent), and his low barrel rate helps him to keep the ball in the yard.

Brown is going to play a featured role in Houston’s rotation following the offseason departure of Justin Verlander, and I think he’ll be up to the task. You can do worse than taking a small-dollar flier on Brown’s +2500 AL Cy Young odds, especially considering they may well improve once the season gets underway.

Who Will Win AL Cy Young in 2025?

The 2025 AL Cy Young race is clearly Skubal’s to lose. If he stays healthy, there’s a decent chance the current +380 odds are the most favorable number at which we’ll see him all year.

Baseball is an inherently random game, though, and injuries pop up unexpectedly all the time. This is particularly true for starting pitchers, unfortunately. Skubal is a viable bet, but I’d rather shoot for the extra upside that comes with betting on some of the longer shots.

Brown at +2500 stands out, but I like Crochet at +450. Playing for the Red Sox certainly won’t hurt his chances to get the attention of voters, and his numbers suggest the potential for further improvement this season.

Bet: Garrett Crochet (+450)

2025 NL Cy Young Odds

Check out the latest NL Cy Young odds:

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes leads the way on the National League side at +300, and his electric stuff makes him a deserving favorite. Zack Wheeler and Chris Sale are a couple of veteran contenders, while Blake Snell’s high-strikeout upside at +1000 offers major value. Corbin Burnes sits at +1200, making him an interesting mid-tier option.

National League Cy Young Award Predictions

Check out our predictions for the 2025 National League Cy Young Award:

Paul Skenes (+300)

Skenes has taken MLB by storm, and at +300, he is the clear frontrunner. His overpowering fastball and elite strikeout rate make him the safest pick, though even the safest picks come with risk. It’s a bit shocking to see Skenes opening with even more favorable odds on the NL side than Skubal – the reigning winner – has in the AL.

Skenes won the NL Rookie of the Year Award last season, and he also started for the National League in the All-Star Game. Still only 22, Skenes arrived in the majors last season and immediately established himself as one of the league’s most dominant arms.

In 23 games for the Pirates, Skenes pitched to a record of 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA. We don’t often see pitchers breeze through the minors after leaving college, and pitchers who then arrive in the majors and overwhelm the world’s best hitters are an even rarer commodity. Skenes posted a 33.1 percent strikeout rate, a 51 percent ground ball rate, and a 6.2 percent walk rate. There are no obvious weaknesses in his game.

So, it’s hard to punch any holes in his NL Cy Young case. I suppose any young pitcher is going to be susceptible to growing pains, and it’s just a matter of time until opposing hitters adjust and, in turn, force Skenes to counter with adjustments of his own. There’s no reason to believe he isn’t capable of that, and he should be in the race for the Cy Young Award for as long as he can stay healthy.

Zack Wheeler (+750)

Zack Wheeler has quietly remained one of baseball’s most reliable arms. With his ability to limit hard contact and go deep into games, he could provide excellent value for bettors. Plus, Wheeler’s Philadelphia Phillies are much more likely to make a playoff run than Skenes’ Pirates are, though team success doesn’t generally play a huge role in Cy Young voting.

Wheeler is one of the best pitchers in the game to have never won the Cy Young Award. Still, the Phillies’ bold decision to hand him a lucrative contract when he was still an unproven pitcher has proven to be brilliant. All Wheeler did last season was finish 16-7 across 32 starts with a 2.57 ERA. We don’t see that many innings-eating workhorses in the game nowadays, but Wheeler is one of the few.

He’s made at least 26 starts in each of the last 4 seasons, and he’s posted a sub-3.00 ERA in 3 of those campaigns. He won’t blow hitters away with the strikeout stuff we see from Skubal or Skenes, but he also rarely gets slapped around. Wheeler isn’t the kind of pitcher who will attract much betting action given his steady, all-business style, but he’s a viable option at the +750 odds.

Chris Sale (+800)

Chris Sale has revitalized his career and is once again proving to be one of the game’s best strikeout pitchers. If he can stay healthy, he has a legitimate shot at taking home the award.

Like deGrom, it looked as though Sale’s best days were behind him as a result of injuries. The wiry left-hander didn’t pitch in more than 20 games in any season between 2021 and 2023, yet he bounced back in a big way in his first year with the Atlanta Braves in 2024. Sale finished 18-3 across 29 outings with a 2.38 ERA. His 32.1 percent strikeout rate put him among the league leaders, while he was also elite in terms of limiting walks and power.

Injuries will always be a question – especially now that he’s 35 – but there were no other warning signs in Sale’s numbers last season. When healthy, he’s clearly still one of the 5 most electrifying pitchers in the sport. Sale’s +800 odds seem to reflect his injury risk, but he has major payoff potential considering he just won the award last year.

2025 NL Cy Young Longshot

I don’t think Roki Sasaki (+4000) is particularly likely to win the NL Cy Young Award as a rookie, but I do think his odds should probably be better than +4000. The fireballing right-hander is the latest addition to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ staff of bona fide aces, and he’s slated to start LA’s second game of the regular season against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo.

In all likelihood, the Dodgers will take a cautious approach with their new young star. Dave Roberts is reportedly planning on running with a 6-man starting rotation, which is a luxury afforded to him by Los Angeles’ absurd starting pitching depth. Sasaki will join a rotation that also features Cy Young contenders in Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, while Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and Bobby Miller are waiting in the wings.

Will Sasaki struggle against MLB competition for the first time? Possibly. The 6’3″ right-hander is still only 23, but he was one of the most dominant pitchers in Japan before coming to America this offseason. Last season, Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games, and his strikeout ability will instantly make him a quality pitcher even against stiffer foes in the majors.

Sasaki’s Cy Young odds entering the 2026 season will likely be considerably better than they are entering 2025, so I don’t mind taking a shot on his talent at +4000.

Who Will Win the NL Cy Young Award?

Skenes is a worthy frontrunner, and it’s hard to imagine the new face of the Pirates’ franchise won’t win a Cy Young Award (or several) by the time his career is over with. He’s still awfully young, though, and we know young pitchers tend to have a more difficult time with consistency.

I think Sale is my favorite combination of value and upside at the +800 odds. Injuries can obviously derail his quest for a 2nd straight trophy, but the injury risk is baked into the odds. I’ll be glad to grab Sale at this number while I still can.

Bet: Chris Sale (+800) 

Recent Cy Young Award Winners

The following is a list of the most recent Cy Young Award winners: