Skubal’s move shifts the American League Cy Young race, leaving Dylan Cease and Cam Schlittler in front

The American League Cy Young race is no longer centered on Tarik Skubal. After Skubal was traded to the Dodgers, the award conversation has shifted to a new set of front-runners, highlighted by Dylan Cease and Cam Schlittler, according to CBS Sports’ look at the race.

The significance goes beyond a single player. Skubal had been positioned as the odds-on narrative from one year to the next, and the CBS Sports assessment frames the 2026 race as the first time since the 2023 season that someone other than Skubal will win the American League Cy Young. In other words, it is a break in a storyline that had become familiar: dominant performance from a pitcher who had built a reputation as the AL’s clearest candidate.

CBS Sports also ties the race’s reframing to a practical reality of MLB awards. Because the Cy Young is separated by league, a midseason move that places a pitcher in the National League removes him from the American League ballot discussion. That is the mechanism behind the “non-Skubal AL Cy Young winner” framing, even if Skubal’s overall body of work remains part of how fans and analysts measure pitching quality across the sport.

With Skubal out of the AL conversation, the remaining contenders become the focus. CBS Sports identifies Cease and Schlittler as the frontrunners in the American League Cy Young race. Their names matter here because both have the profile of pitchers who can separate themselves through sustained value across starts, rather than a brief stretch that can be discounted as the season moves toward October.

Still, the AL Cy Young race is unlikely to settle immediately. Late-season award trajectories often depend on how pitchers perform against higher-leverage lineups and how voters weigh recent effectiveness versus longer-term dominance. Even when a race appears to narrow to two names, the runway for September and the early portion of October is where voters tend to confirm their choices, especially in years when multiple teams are fighting for positioning.

For Cease and Schlittler, the remaining task is to convert the opportunity created by Skubal’s departure. The trade removes one dominant narrative, but it does not remove the competitive bar for winning the award in the AL. If either pitcher falters in key starts, the race can widen again as other candidates accumulate strong finishes.

What to watch next is how voters respond to both the immediate “two-man” framing and the broader context of league value. Cease and Schlittler will likely be evaluated not just on individual results, but on how consistently they drive outcomes for their teams in the second half, and whether their performances line up with the moment the awards picture is actually decided.