Jacob Misiorowski won the 2026 National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, November 11, completing a unanimous vote after a season that reset Milwaukee’s standard for starting pitching. The 24-year-old finished with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts across 174⅔ innings for the World Series champion Brewers.
Misiorowski collected 210 points in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting. Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez finished second with 99, one point ahead of Atlanta’s Chris Sale.
The championship adds to the significance of Milwaukee’s season, but it did not decide this award. Ballots were submitted before the postseason began; Misiorowski had secured his case across 30 regular-season starts.
Jacob Misiorowski takes all 30 first-place votes
One point separated second from third. There was no comparable uncertainty at the top: every voter placed Misiorowski first, leaving Sánchez and Sale competing for the positions beneath him.
Sánchez received 17 second-place votes, while Sale received 11. The remaining two went to the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who finished fourth overall. Philadelphia’s Jesús Luzardo completed the top five.
| Pitcher | Team | First-place votes | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Misiorowski | Milwaukee Brewers | 30 | 210 |
| Cristopher Sánchez | Philadelphia Phillies | 0 | 99 |
| Chris Sale | Atlanta Braves | 0 | 98 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Los Angeles Dodgers | 0 | 63 |
| Jesús Luzardo | Philadelphia Phillies | 0 | 34 |
The unanimity is significant because the contenders offered different strengths. Sánchez provided substantially more innings, Sale finished closest to Misiorowski in ERA, and Philadelphia had two pitchers ahead of Milwaukee’s ace in wins above replacement.
Sánchez threw 207 innings, with 231 strikeouts and a 2.91 ERA. His workload exceeded Misiorowski’s by 32⅓ innings, a meaningful contribution over a regular season in which every inning handled by a starter reduces the work left for the bullpen.
Sale recorded a 2.16 ERA across 162⅔ innings, striking out 200 and walking 31. His run prevention put him nearer to Misiorowski than Sánchez on that measure, though he finished behind both in the final voting.
Misiorowski’s answer was the combination of strikeouts, limited baserunners and runs prevented. He struck out more hitters than either finalist while allowing fewer earned runs per nine innings. His 37.9% strikeout rate led all of MLB, meaning more than a third of opposing plate appearances ended without a ball put into play.
The result does not make workload irrelevant. It shows that voters unanimously preferred Misiorowski’s level of performance across his innings to the alternatives offered by the other contenders.
A 1.80 ERA resets Milwaukee’s starting-pitcher record
Misiorowski lowered a franchise benchmark that had stood since 1978, when Mike Caldwell finished with a 2.36 ERA. The difference was more than half an earned run per nine innings.
His season also stands out beyond Milwaukee. The 1.80 ERA was the lowest full-season mark to lead the National League since Jacob deGrom’s 1.70 in 2018. Across either league, no starter had led with a lower figure since Justin Verlander’s 1.75 in 2022.
Those comparisons place the award in context without requiring every measure to tell the same story. Misiorowski’s 6.4 WAR ranked third in the National League behind Sánchez and Luzardo. His season was not a sweep of every statistical category, even though the vote was unanimous.
The figures describing what happened within his innings were particularly strong:
- 96 hits allowed across 174⅔ innings, a rate of 4.9 per nine.
- 44 walks against 252 strikeouts, limiting the damage from free passes.
- 0.802 WHIP, measuring walks and hits allowed per inning pitched.
- 2.17 FIP, the best mark in the majors on a measure centred on strikeouts, walks and home runs.
Philadelphia’s one-hit afternoon
His June 13 start against the Phillies supplied a concentrated example: nine innings, one hit, no walks and 15 strikeouts in a 6–0 Milwaukee victory. He completed the shutout on 95 pitches.
That performance combined the qualities behind his award. The strikeouts removed opportunities for hits, the absence of walks prevented additional baserunners, and the pitch count allowed him to finish the game himself.
His ERA stood at 1.34 after that outing. It eventually finished at 1.80, a reminder that even this season included less effective starts. Against the Cubs on September 3, he allowed five earned runs in four innings.
He then allowed one earned run across his final four regular-season appearances. The award reflected sustained run prevention over the full campaign, including his response to that September setback.
100.6 mph across a season, 105.5 mph at the peak
Misiorowski’s four-seam fastball averaged 100.6 mph during the regular season. The exceptional feature was the frequency with which he reached that speed, not simply his fastest recorded pitch.
He threw 1,115 pitches at 100 mph or faster, comfortably the highest total among MLB starters. Bubba Chandler was second with 155. That made extreme velocity a recurring part of Misiorowski’s starts rather than an occasional maximum.
His 105.5 mph pitch in June set the recorded MLB mark for a starting pitcher. It was the third-fastest pitch overall since pitch tracking began in 2008, behind Aroldis Chapman’s offerings at 105.8 and 105.7 mph.
That distinction matters: Misiorowski established the starter record, rather than the overall pitching record.
Velocity gives hitters less time to recognise a pitch and commit to a swing. Its value still depends on execution. Throwing hard does not by itself prevent walks, keep runners off base or produce an award-winning ERA.
Misiorowski’s results showed those benefits together. He averaged 13.0 strikeouts per nine innings, while his 44 walks were modest beside the number of hitters he struck out. The fastball attracted attention, but the season’s effectiveness depended on turning that speed into outs.
His 2.17 FIP also strengthens the statistical case beyond ERA alone. Because that measure concentrates on outcomes less dependent on fielders, it offers another way to assess whether a pitcher’s run prevention was accompanied by strong underlying results.
There is still a distinction between explaining 2026 and predicting 2027. The velocity and strikeout numbers describe an extraordinary completed season; they do not guarantee another one. Repeating it would require maintaining that effectiveness through another substantial starting workload.
Milwaukee’s fourth winner, with October counted separately
Misiorowski joins Corbin Burnes, Pete Vuckovich and Rollie Fingers as Brewers Cy Young winners. Burnes won in 2021; Vuckovich and Fingers won in 1982 and 1981 respectively, when Milwaukee played in the American League.
That makes Misiorowski the franchise’s second National League winner. His award arrives alongside a different first: Milwaukee’s World Series championship.
The two achievements belong to the same season but cover separate competitive periods. Cy Young voters judged his regular-season work. His postseason appearances helped Milwaukee win the title after those ballots had already been submitted.
Across four playoff starts, Misiorowski posted a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings, allowing four earned runs. Milwaukee won all four games in which he started.
His October performances also differed from his regular-season pattern. He struck out 16 batters and walked six across those 19 innings, a lower strikeout rate than he maintained during the regular season. Yet he allowed no home runs and continued to limit scoring.
The distinction is useful when assessing his contribution to the championship. He remained effective without reproducing the strikeout totals that had defined his award campaign. Those starts reinforced Milwaukee’s successful season, but they were outside the Cy Young vote.
The next individual milestone would be a successful defence in 2027. DeGrom, who won in 2018 and 2019, remains the National League’s most recent consecutive Cy Young winner.
Misiorowski would reach that point at age 25. His first award sets a demanding benchmark: 30 starts, a franchise-record ERA for a starter and a ballot on which every voter placed him first.