Jacob Misiorowski has claimed the 2026 National League Cy Young Award.
Of course.
The young fireballer from Milwaukee received this prestigious honor by a unanimous vote on Wednesday, collecting all 30 first-place votes from designated members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
I was among those voters. Honestly, this decision was quite straightforward. Misiorowski made it easy.
In 2026, over 174 2/3 innings, the 24-year-old pitcher for the Brewers achieved an astonishing 1.80 ERA with 252 strikeouts, both of which led the league. His 0.802 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) marked the second-lowest single-season figure for pitchers with at least 30 starts since Walter Johnson’s record in 1913. Additionally, his strikeout rate of 37.9% was the second-highest in history, trailing only Gerrit Cole’s record in 2019. Misiorowski made history by being the first pitcher to start 30 games while giving up fewer than 100 hits in a season, and his opponents’ batting average of .157 is the lowest in MLB history.
There’s a strong case to be made that no starting pitcher has ever been as hard to hit as Misiorowski was throughout the 2026 season.
His heat, after all, was his not-so-hidden weapon.
Miz’s four-seam fastball averaged 100.6 mph, making him the first starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era to consistently hit triple digits. He threw more pitches at or over 100 mph (1,115) than all other starting pitchers combined (669) and outpaced Bubba Chandler, who was in second place, by 960 pitches. Just 22 starters even managed to throw a pitch exceeding 100 mph.
He was unstoppable, astonishing, unprecedented.
Consequently, Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies came in second for the second year in a row. The argument for Sánchez over Miz — a notion I considered as a thought exercise — centers on factors like availability and bad luck. To start with the quantity: Philly’s ace pitched 32 1/3 more innings than his Milwaukee counterpart and made three additional starts (33 versus 30). Sánchez recorded 25 starts where he pitched at least six innings; Misiorowski managed only 18. If you discount a disastrous outing on July 7 where Sánchez allowed nine earned runs, his season ERA would drop from 2.91 to 2.56.
Sánchez also suffered from unusually bad batted ball luck. His opposing batting average on balls in play was a staggering .336, in contrast to Misiorowski’s .227. That remarkable figure for Miz was partly a result of his absurdly overpowering pitching resulting in numerous weak hits. It was also influenced by Milwaukee’s exceptional defense and precise positioning. In contrast, Sánchez faced challenges due to one of the league’s weakest fielding teams.
Philadelphia concluded the 2026 season with a minus-51 in defensive runs saved, which tied them for last with the Athletics in MLB. Their regular infield was particularly vulnerable, with shortstop Trea Turner, third baseman Alec Bohm, and first baseman Bryce Harper all scoring poorly according to advanced metrics. This was a terrible scenario for Sánchez, who depended heavily on groundballs; his 57.7% groundball rate was the highest among qualified starters. That unfortunate combination resulted in more weak base hits, additional baserunners, and increased runs than would have occurred if Sánchez had the backing of Milwaukee’s defense and positioning.
Yet, as intriguing as that dynamic was, it fell short of closing the significant statistical gap between Sánchez and Misiorowski. The narrative weight of Misiorowski’s year also played a role: he transformed from a raw rookie to one of the most dominant pitching figures in history. Notably, voting for the award takes place before the playoffs, so Milwaukee’s postseason performance didn’t influence Miz’s win, but his contribution to the Brewers achieving the best record in baseball certainly factored into my decision.
Ultimately, the choice for the top honor was evident. Misiorowski emerged as the primary pitching figure of the 2026 MLB season, both in terms of statistics and storyline. He has now become one of the most prominent personalities in the sport, a remarkable talent on the mound.
The rest of my NL Cy Young ballot was also rather uncomplicated. Sánchez surpassed Sale for second place, even though Sale boasted a lower ERA due to pitching only 162 2/3 innings. Atlanta’s left-handed ace narrowly edged out Yamamoto based on strikeout-to-walk ratio. Yamamoto struck out 25.7% of batters faced, while Sale recorded 30.9% with fewer walks.
Jesús Luzardo secured the final position on my ballot, although I seriously considered San Diego closer Mason Miller, who crafted one of the more impressive relief seasons in recent memory. However, Miller’s relatively subpar results (4.61 ERA across his final 12 appearances) combined with the exceptionally high standards for reliever value led me to exclude him from my ballot.
1. Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers
2. Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies
3. Chris Sale, Braves
4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers
5. Jesús Luzardo, Phillies
