2026 MLB Cy Young candidates: Ranking the top pitchers in the AL and NL

Everyone loves watching the top star bats in MLB hit for power, but we’re in an incredible era when it comes to starting pitching. Pitchers are throwing harder than ever before with devastating secondary offerings as well, and it’s hard to have a three-game series where you don’t see an elite arm. As the Official Ticket Marketplace of MLB, SeatGeek is where fans go to lock in seats for those must-see pitching matchups all season long. 

The 2026 season will feature one American League starter going for his third straight Cy Young Award while last year’s winner in the National League is off to one of the most historic starts to a pitching career the sport has seen. But who can unseat them?

Top contenders to win the 2026 AL Cy Young

The AL field is stacked with lefties who bully hitters and veterans who just refuse to give the ball up every fifth day.

Here are my preseason AL Cy Young favorites:

1. Tarik Skubal (Detroit Tigers)

Tarik Skubal’s 2024 Cy Young campaign was so dominant, it seemed like Detroit’s hard-throwing lefty had peaked. Yet Skubal threw more innings with a lower ERA, WHIP, H/9, BB/9 and a higher K/9 in 2025 than 2024. Skubal shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, and the young left-hander has more than earned the title of best in the game entering 2026. With one year left before free agency, Skubal’s long-term future will remain a talking point, but the Tigers are the clear AL Central frontrunners and can be a true World Series contender if the bats follow the arms. 

2. Garrett Crochet (Boston Red Sox)

Skubal’s bid for a 3-peat won’t be easy with some great arms across the American League. Garrett Crochet finished second in Cy Young voting last year after striking out 255 with a 2.59 ERA in his first year with the Red Sox. Concerns about Crochet’s ability to eat innings have long since gone away after making 32 starts each of the last two seasons, and no starter in baseball has been punching tickets like he has the last two seasons. Crochet will certainly be a top Cy Young contender again this season.

3. Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers)

Jacob deGrom finally stayed healthy with the Rangers and produced very well in 30 starts with a 2.97 ERA and 185 strikeouts across 172 2/3 innings. The Rangers have arguably the best top-end of any rotation in the AL with deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore. The veteran right-hander doesn’t have the video game stuff we’ve seen from him in the past, but the 37-year-old star deGrom still features one of the best pitch mixes in baseball. Asking for another fully healthy season may be a lot, but there’s no doubt that deGrom isn’t slowing down when he takes the mound.

4. Hunter Brown (Houston Astros)

Hunter Brown will shoulder more burden this year for the Astros with former Houston co-ace Framber Valdez now in Detroit, but that shouldn’t faze him. Brown dazzled in 2025 with a 2.43 ERA and 206 punchouts and he’s been on a meteoric rise the last two years. Brown is big with even bigger stuff, and he makes things incredibly tough for opposing batters. He should assume ace status in 2026 if he hasn’t already. 

5. Max Fried (New York Yankees)

Max Fried went 19-5 in his first year with the Yankees, and that was much needed with Gerrit Cole lost for the season. Fried doesn’t have the strikeout stuff the aforementioned names do, but he wins games, eats innings and gets outs – something that’s incredibly valuable in an era where starters are pitching fewer and fewer innings per start. Even a move to a more hitter-friendly park in New York didn’t faze Fried as he had a 2.86 ERA and pitched a career-high 195 1/3 innings. Cole is still working back from Tommy John surgery, so Fried will be asked to lead the staff early in the season.

Top contenders to win the 2026 NL Cy Young

In the NL, you’ve got pure must-watch TV every time these guys toe the rubber.

Here are my preseason NL Cy Young favorites:

1. Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates)

The top of the NL Cy Young field has an intriguing mix of established stars and younger talents. Paul Skenes had a ridiculous 1.97 ERA last year in 32 starts, which was somehow higher than his rookie mark of 1.96. He’s just different from most other arms that grace MLB mounds, and he also led the league in ERA+, FIP, WHIP and HR/9. The Pirates had a quietly solid offseason and could very well make noise as a wild card team. Who wouldn’t love to see Skenes in October? 

2. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Someone who etched their name into postseason lore is Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers right-hander enters 2026 as The Man after his incredible playoff dominance, especially in the World Series. After a 2.49 ERA in 30 regular-season starts, Yamamoto allowed just two earned runs in 17 2/3 innings in the World Series, including 2 2/3 shutout relief innings to finish off Game 7. That earned him World Series MVP honors, but a fully healthy and strong season may put him in contention for a different sort of award in 2026.

3. Cristopher Sanchez (Philadelphia Phillies)

Cristopher Sanchez finished second to Skenes in a stellar 2025 campaign in which the big lefty pitched to a 2.50 ERA in 202 innings with 212 strikeouts and a 0.5 HR/9 rate. His emergence as a top-line starter has come at a great time for the Phillies as Aaron Nola has started to struggle more of late while Zach Wheeler had his season cut short due to surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Sanchez is more than capable of leading the rotation, and his changeup is maybe the best secondary pitch of any starter in the National League.

4. Chris Sale (Atlanta Braves)

We’ll wrap these rankings up with a pair of former Cy Young winners. Chris Sale took home the hardware in 2024, when he was elite with a 2.38 ERA in his first season in Atlanta. He, like many other Braves, dealt with injury last year, but when Sale was on the mound, he remained dynamic, punching out 165 batters in 125 2/3 innings. The star lefty, when healthy, is as dominant as they come. 

5. Blake Snell (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Snell is one of just seven pitchers to win the Cy Young in both leagues, and he’s in the spotlight more than ever now that he’s with the Dodgers. He, like Sale, dealt with injuries last year, but he was dominant when healthy, pitching to a 2.35 ERA in just 11 regular-season starts. Snell offers as deep and dominant of a repertoire as any starter in the game, and while Yamamoto enters the season with more hype, it’s Snell who has taken home this award before.