Jacob Misiorowski named unanimous NL Cy Young after dominant 2026 season

Jacob Misiorowski’s rise from top prospect to unanimous Cy Young winner took barely 16 months.

The Milwaukee Brewers right-hander was named the 2026 National League Cy Young Award winner by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Wednesday, becoming a rare unanimous selection after one of the most dominant pitching seasons in the majors. The award was announced Nov. 11 as part of MLB’s awards week.

Misiorowski, 24, led all qualified major league starters in nearly every major run-prevention category during the regular season. He finished with a 1.80 ERA, the best mark in baseball, and also led the majors with 252 strikeouts. He topped qualified starters in WHIP, which measures walks and hits allowed per inning pitched, at 0.80, and held opponents to a .157 batting average.

That statistical dominance would have been notable on its own. What makes the season stand out even more is how quickly it happened. Misiorowski made his major league debut on June 12, 2025. By November 2026, in essentially his second big-league season, he was a unanimous Cy Young winner.

The underlying numbers reinforced the case. Misiorowski posted a 2.17 FIP, or fielding independent pitching, an advanced metric designed to isolate outcomes a pitcher most directly controls, and a 232 ERA+, which adjusts earned run average for league and ballpark conditions. His strikeout rate was 12.98 per nine innings. MLB.com also reported that his top fastball velocity this season reached 105.5 mph.

He paired overpowering stuff with several headline moments. On Opening Day, Misiorowski struck out 11, setting a Brewers club record for a season opener. On June 13, he took a perfect game into the late stages of a near-flawless outing in which he faced 27 batters and struck out 15. He was selected to the All-Star team and delivered key regular-season wins, including an Aug. 15 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers and a Sept. 15 start when Milwaukee clinched the NL Central.

The award places Misiorowski in select company. He is the fourth pitcher in Brewers history to win a Cy Young, joining Rollie Fingers in 1981, Pete Vuckovich in 1982 and Corbin Burnes in 2021. According to MLB.com, he also became the 17th National League pitcher to win the award unanimously and the second straight unanimous winner in the league after Paul Skenes in 2025.

Misiorowski’s postseason added to his breakout year, though it did not factor into the voting. BBWAA ballots are submitted before the playoffs begin. He later started and won Milwaukee’s World Series-clinching Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 28.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Misiorowski’s growth was as striking as the raw stuff.

“It’s the way the young man has become stronger, more certain of himself,” Murphy said. “It’s a joy to watch it. He’s not a finished product, by any stretch. But he’s really jumped a lot of hurdles.”