Jacob Misiorowski landed all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to claim the 2026 National League Cy Young Award. The Milwaukee Brewers’ 24-year-old right-hander led the NL with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts over 174 2/3 innings, feats that made the decision straightforward for voters.
Misiorowski’s 0.802 WHIP ranks as the second-lowest single-season mark for pitchers with at least 30 starts since Walter Johnson in 1913. His strikeout rate of 37.9% trails only Gerrit Cole’s 2019 record. He also became the first pitcher to make 30 starts while allowing fewer than 100 hits in a season, and he posted the lowest opponents’ batting average in MLB history at .157. These numbers position him among the hardest pitchers to hit in a full season.
Heat was Misiorowski’s defining feature. His four-seam fastball averaged 100.6 mph, making him the first starter in the pitch-tracking era to sustain triple-digit velocity on average. Over the season, he threw 1,115 pitches at or above 100 mph, more than every other starter combined, who totaled 669. The next closest pitcher was Bubba Chandler with 155 fewer pitches over 100 mph. Just 22 other starters crossed the 100 mph threshold even once.
Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez finished second in the Cy Young voting for the second year running. Sánchez threw 32 1/3 more innings and made three more starts than Misiorowski, completing 25 starts of at least six innings compared to Misiorowski’s 18. Removing a disastrous nine-earned-run outing on July 7 drops Sánchez’s ERA from 2.91 to 2.56, showing how one bad game skewed his season numbers.
Defensive support also distinguished the two pitchers. Sánchez’s opponents batted .336 on balls in play, a high figure partly due to Philadelphia’s defense, which ranked last in MLB with minus-51 defensive runs saved. The Phillies’ infielders, shortstop Trea Turner, third baseman Alec Bohm, and first baseman Bryce Harper, each graded poorly by advanced metrics. Their inability to convert ground balls hurt Sánchez, who led qualified starters with a 57.7% groundball rate.
Milwaukee’s defense and positioning helped Misiorowski limit base hits and runs. His opponents’ batting average on balls in play was .227, far better than Sánchez’s, a difference owed in part to the Brewers’ fielding as well as Misiorowski’s overpowering pitching.
Despite Sánchez’s durability and some bad luck, the statistical gap between the two was vast. The story of Misiorowski’s rise, from a raw rookie to a dominant force, also factored into the voting. The Cy Young ballots are cast before the postseason, so Milwaukee’s strong October run did not influence the award, but his role in leading the Brewers to the best regular-season record was part of the broader discussion.
The rest of the National League Cy Young ballot included Chris Sale of the Braves in third place, edging Dodgers lefty Yoshinobu Yamamoto in strikeout-to-walk rate. Yamamoto struck out 25.7% of hitters, while Sale struck out 30.9% and walked fewer batters. Jesús Luzardo of the Phillies took the final spot on the ballot.
San Diego closer Mason Miller was considered but ultimately left off due to a 4.61 ERA in his final 12 outings and the high value threshold for relievers on the Cy Young ballot.
Misiorowski’s season combined statistical dominance with narrative impact. His blazing fastball and ability to limit hits carved him out as the standout pitcher of 2026, earning him unanimous recognition from the writers who cover the game.
According to Yahoo Sports.
