After diving into the WAR of MVP winners since the turn of the century, here’s a look at how the pitchers who won the sport’s most prestigious award for the position ended up.
With the final stretch of the 2026 MLB season now underway, fans and media members are turning their attention to the playoff push following an incredibly active trade deadline.
At the same time, a smaller focus is beginning to take shape as well as leaders emerge in the races for the league’s most coveted end-of-season awards.
Although the MVP race typically takes up most of the attention, the league’s top pitchers are also vying for the Cy Young Award – an accolade that seems to have opened up after Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes won the award last season.
Awarded each season to the best pitchers in the American League and National League respectively, the honor is seen as the most significant boost a pitcher could get to their Hall of Fame resume, signifying their status as a leaguewide ace in a given season.
Though pitchers don’t typically factor into MVP races, there have been two occasions since 2000 where a pitcher has won the MVP award, with future Hall of Famers Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw taking home the hardware in 2011 and 2014, respectively.
Still, pitchers have proven to have the ability to contribute several wins to a team in any given season, though no Cy Young winners have eclipsed the value that Dwight Gooden brought to the New York Mets in 1985, which saw him compile 12.2 WAR across a 24-4 campaign.
Excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, WAR for Cy Young Award winners in the 21st century has varied from the 11.7 WAR compiled in Pedro Martínez’s historic 2000 season to the 3.7 WAR posted by Eric Gagné in 2003 – which remains the most recent occasion that a reliever has won the award.
With still around a month-and-a-half to play in 2026, this year’s NL race appears to be a battle between Cristopher Sánchez of the Philadelphia Phillies and second-year phenom Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers, while Dylan Cease of the Toronto Blue Jays and Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees have emerged as AL front-runners.
As teams lock in for the final stretch of the season, here’s a look at the 52 Cy Young Award-winning seasons of the 21st century so far, ranked by WAR.
*WAR used in this list and all lists on this website is bWAR from Baseball-Reference, which differs from fWAR, calculated by FanGraphs with a slightly different formula.
- 2000 Pedro Martínez: 11.7 WAR
- 2002 Randy Johnson: 10.7 WAR
- 2009 Zack Greinke: 10.4 WAR
- 2001 Randy Johnson: 10.1 WAR
- 2018 Jacob deGrom: 9.4 WAR
- 2004 Johan Santana: 8.7 WAR
- 2011 Justin Verlander: 8.6 WAR
- 2010 Roy Halladay: 8.5 WAR
- 2015 Jake Arrieta: 8.3 WAR
- 2014 Corey Kluber: 8.1 WAR
- 2013 Clayton Kershaw: 8.1 WAR
- 2003 Roy Halladay: 8.1 WAR
- 2000 Randy Johnson: 8.1 WAR
- 2025 Paul Skenes: 8.0 WAR
- 2022 Sandy Alcantara: 8.0 WAR
- 2017 Corey Kluber: 7.9 WAR
- 2008 Tim Lincecum: 7.8 WAR
- 2014 Clayton Kershaw: 7.7 WAR
- 2006 Johan Santana: 7.6 WAR
- 2023 Gerrit Cole: 7.4 WAR
- 2019 Justin Verlander: 7.4 WAR
- 2009 Tim Lincecum: 7.4 WAR
- 2019 Jacob deGrom: 7.2 WAR
- 2017 Max Scherzer: 7.2 WAR
- 2010 Félix Hernández: 7.2 WAR
- 2002 Barry Zito: 7.2 WAR
- 2018 Blake Snell: 7.1 WAR
- 2006 Brandon Webb: 7.0 WAR
- 2021 Robbie Ray: 6.9 WAR
- 2011 Clayton Kershaw: 6.8 WAR
- 2008 Cliff Lee: 6.8 WAR
- 2024 Tarik Skubal: 6.7 WAR
- 2015 Dallas Keuchel: 6.6 WAR
- 2012 David Price: 6.6 WAR
- 2023 Blake Snell: 6.5 WAR
- 2013 Max Scherzer: 6.5 WAR
- 2025 Tarik Skubal: 6.4 WAR
- 2016 Max Scherzer: 6.3 WAR
- 2007 C.C. Sabathia: 6.3 WAR
- 2024 Chris Sale: 6.2 WAR
- 2007 Jake Peavy: 6.2 WAR
- 2005 Chris Carpenter: 5.8 WAR
- 2012 R.A. Dickey: 5.7 WAR
- 2001 Roger Clemens: 5.7 WAR
- 2022 Justin Verlander: 5.6 WAR
- 2004 Roger Clemens: 5.4 WAR
- 2021 Corbin Burnes: 5.3 WAR
- 2016 Rick Porcello: 4.7 WAR
- 2005 Bartolo Colon: 4.0 WAR
- 2003 Eric Gagné: 3.7 WAR
- 2020 Shane Bieber: 3.2 WAR
- 2020 Trevor Bauer: 3.0 WAR
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