Jacob Misiorowski is the 2026 National League Cy Young Award winner.

Duh.

Milwaukee's twiggy flame-thrower earned the hardware by unanimous decision on Wednesday, securing all 30 first-place votes from selected members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

I was one of them. And frankly, this wasn't a difficult decision. Misiorowski made it so.

Across 174 2/3 innings in 2026, the 24-year-old Brewer posted a microscopic 1.80 ERA with 252 strikeouts, both league-leading marks. His 0.802 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) was the second-lowest single-season mark among hurlers with at least 30 starts since Walter Johnson in 1913. His 37.9% strikeout rate was the second-highest ever, behind only Gerrit Cole in 2019. Misiorowski became the first pitcher to make 30 starts and surrender fewer than 100 hits in a season, and he popped the lowest opponents' batting average in MLB history (.157).

There is a legitimate argument that over a full season, no starting pitcher has ever been as difficult to hit as Misiorowski was in 2026.

Heat, of course, was his not-so-secret sauce.

Miz's four-seam fastball sat at 100.6 mph, making him the first starter in the pitch-tracking era to average triple digits. He threw more pitches at or over 100 mph (1,115) than every other starting pitcher combined (669) and 960 more than Bubba Chandler in second place. Only 22 other starters even threw a pitch over 100 mph.

He was undeniable, staggering, unprecedented.

That meant Phillies southpaw Cristopher Sánchez finished second for the second consecutive year. The case for Sánchez over Miz — one I entertained as a thought experiment — revolves around availability and bad luck. First, the bulk: Philly's ace threw 32 1/3 more innings than Milwaukee's and made three more starts (33 to 30). Sánchez delivered 25 starts of at least six innings; Misiorowski had just 18. Remove a cataclysmic, nine-earned-run stinker on July 7 from Sánchez's ledger, and his season ERA plummets from 2.91 to 2.56.

Sánchez was also the victim of some incredibly unfortunate batted ball luck. His opposing batting average on balls in play was a sky-high .336, compared to Misiorowski's .227. Miz's microscopic figure is partially a product of his preposterously overpowering stuff inducing mountains of weak contact. It's also a result of Milwaukee's sensational defense and positioning. The inverse was true for Sánchez, who had to overcome one of the game's worst fielding units.

Philadelphia finished 2026 with minus-51 defensive runs saved, tied for last with the Athletics in MLB. Its regular infield was particularly porous, with shortstop Trea Turner, third baseman Alec Bohm and first baseman Bryce Harper all grading out poorly by advanced metrics. That was an awful match for the sinker-heavy Sánchez, whose 57.7% groundball rate led qualified starters. That unsavory combo yielded more weak base hits, more baserunners and more runs than would've been the case if, say, Sánchez had the Brewers' defense and positioning behind him.

And yet, as compelling as that dynamic was, it didn't come close to bridging the statistical chasm between Sánchez and Misiorowski. The storytelling heft of Misiorowski's year helped, too: An ascension from a sushi-raw rookie freak show to one of the most dominant pitching seasons ever. Notably, award voting happens before the playoffs, meaning that Milwaukee's October run played no part in Miz's victory, but his role in propelling the Brewers to the best record in the sport did factor into my thinking.

In the end, the decision for the top spot was clear. Misiorowski was the pitching main character of the 2026 MLB season, both statistically and narratively. He is now one of the most recognizable figures in the sport, a fire-breathing unicorn on the mound.

The rest of my NL Cy Young ballot was also pretty straightforward. Sánchez beat Sale for second, even though Sale had a much lower ERA because he threw only 162 2/3 innings. Atlanta's lefty ace edged out Yamamoto for me on strikeout-to-walk rate. Yamamoto punched out 25.7% of hitters, while Sale struck out 30.9% and walked fewer batters. 

Jesús Luzardo slotted in the final spot, though I heavily considered San Diego closer Mason Miller, who crafted one of the more show-stopping relief seasons in recent memory. In the end, though, Miller's relatively pedestrian finish (4.61 ERA across his final 12 outings) and the incredibly high bar for reliever value pushed him off my ballot.

1. Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers 2. Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies 3. Chris Sale, Braves 4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers 5. Jesús Luzardo, Phillies