Could Garrett Crochet Win the Triple Crown but Lose the Cy Young?

Garrett Crochet has cemented his status as a bona fide ace in MLB this season.

The Boston Red Sox acquired the lefty from the Chicago White Sox over this past offseason and signed him to a six-year, $170 million contract extension before he even threw a single pitch for their team. Given what we’ve seen thus far from Crochet in Boston, it’s clear that these decisions worked out incredibly well.

In 25 starts with the Red Sox in 2025, the 26-year-old has a record of 13-5 and 196 strikeouts across 159.1 innings to the tune of a 2.43 ERA. He is currently tied for the American League lead in wins with 13 and ranks in the top three in several other prominent categories. At times in the past few weeks, Crochet has either ranked first or among the top names in the AL in all of wins, strikeouts, and ERA.

Here are his standings in the relevant statistics, prior to play on August 22:

• Third in ERA (2.43)
• Second in strikeouts (196)
• Tied for first in wins (13)
• And, for good measure, he’s tied for first in innings pitched (159.1)

Crochet isn’t just among the league’s best pitchers in all of these major stats, but he sits near the top of the leaderboard in many more categories according to Baseball Savant. He just barely missed Just Baseball’s Pitcher of the Month podium for July, but he has been spectacular as of late.

Baseball Savant has Crochet ranked in the top 20% of pitchers in expected batting average against (.220), average exit velocity (87.7 MPH), walk rate (6.4%), and groundball rate (49.7%). He also ranks among the league’s top 10% of pitchers in chase rate (32.2%), strikeout rate (30.8%), fastball Run Value (+15), breaking ball Run Value (+12), and overall pitching Run Value (+29).

Garrett Crochet has pitched at least seven innings in 11 of his 25 starts this season and has registered nine outings with nine or more strikeouts. He’s only surrendered three or more runs on five occasions in 2025, so he gives the Red Sox a very good chance to win every time he takes the mound.

With all these dominant performances and impressive statistics, it would be hard for him not to win the American League Cy Young Award…well, that is if a man named Tarik Skubal didn’t exist.

The Immovable Object

Garrett Crochet’s main competition in the Cy Young race in 2025 is the pitcher who holds the title of reigning American League Cy Young winner: Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers.

As much as Crochet’s Baseball Savant page is a pleasant sight, Skubal’s page seems simply impossible. Skubal leads the American League in ERA (2.32), he is tied with Crochet in shutouts and innings pitched, he leads MLB in strikeouts (200), and he has walked the second-fewest number of batters (25) this season among qualified arms.

Even if Crochet is able to take the three Triple Crown stats of wins, ERA, and strikeouts, Skubal outshines him in many other metrics. For instance, Skubal’s 5.9 fWAR bests all other starters in MLB, including Crochet’s mark of 5.0 fWAR.

What might be a more representative gap between these two starters is the difference in their WHIPs. Here, Skubal boasts an incredible 0.87, while Crochet sits at 1.07, showing the difference between first and seventh place in MLB.

Skubal won the 2024 Cy Young Award after going 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts across 192 innings, and he’s likely to smash many of his achievements from last season. His K/9 in 2024 was 10.69, but if he pitched his 192 innings last season with the same K/9 he has in 2025 (11.30), his strikeout total would increase from 228 to 241. Better yet, his pitching Run Value last year was +38…his pitching Run Value in 2025 is already 45, and he’s got a bunch more starts left to go.

Skubal received all 30 first-place votes as the unanimous American League Cy Young winner last year and won the Triple Crown, something that he looks very capable of doing again in 2025.

If Crochet wants to take home his first Cy Young Award, he’s going to have to be near-perfect down the stretch, and Skubal will need to have a rough stretch going forward.

Both of their teams are currently in playoff spots thanks in large part to Crochet and Skubal, but just like only one team can win the World Series, only one pitcher can be voted the best in the American League.

Closing Thoughts

As much as Garrett Crochet is having an amazing season in his first year with the Red Sox, Tarik Skubal seems to be matching his every step. Crochet might find himself in a situation where he takes home the American League pitching Triple Crown but isn’t able to lock up a Cy Young victory, as Skubal has just been more dominant in the ways that matter most this season.

If that is indeed the case, it would be the first time in history that a pitcher won the Triple Crown but not the Cy Young.

Regardless of who takes home the award, however, baseball fans are getting to see an intense race thanks to some amazing pitching. While it might be nice to be able to easily predict the winner of an award before it happens, there’s nothing quite like watching the race come down to the final days of the season with multiple names neck-and-neck in the competition.

Whether Skubal gets his second consecutive Cy Young Award or Garrett Crochet gets his first (or a dark horse candidate sneaks their way in), enjoy these two lefties having some of the best seasons in recent memory. The pitcher who takes home the award will be well-deserving of it, and it’ll be fun to see who gets it.