Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes and New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil were named the NL and AL Rookie of the Year Award winners, respectively, on Monday.

Skenes topped San Diego Padres rookie Jackson Merrill and Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jackson Chourio to win the award, while Gil beat out his teammate Austin Wells and narrowly topped Baltimore Orioles slugger Colton Cowser.

Merrill hit hit .292/.326/.500 with 24 homers, 16 stolen bases and 90 RBI in 156 games. He led all rookies with 5.3 FanGraphs' wins above replacement and ranked 15th among all position players regardless of service time. Chourio hit .275/.327/.464 with 21 homers, 22 stolen bases and 79 RBI in 148 games.

Cowser hit .242/.321/.447 slash line in 153 games. His 24 homers were tied with Jackson Merrill for most among all rookies. Wells hit .229/.322/.395 with 13 homers and 55 RBI in 115 games. While those numbers wouldn't be great for most positions on the diamond, the bar for catching is different. He ranked fourth among all backstops with 3.4 FanGraphs' wins above replacement.

As for Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB draft entered professional baseball with all of the hype in the world and managed to exceed it.

Skenes was awarded the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year award, beating out Jackson Merrill of the San Diego Padres and Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Skenes' MLB debut was delayed by more than a month into the 2024 season because the Pittsburgh Pirates kept him in the minors. If their attempt was to delay his free agency by a year, that went out the window because the top two finishers in Rookie of the Year voting receive an automatic year of service time under the collective bargaining agreement regardless of when they get called up.

When Skenes finally was called up on May 11, he never looked back.

The 22-year-old pitched six no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts in his second career start against the Chicago Cubs. He became just the fifth rookie in MLB history to start the All-Star Game. Hideo Nomo was the last first-year pitcher to accomplish that feat in 1995.

Skenes finished the year with a 1.96 ERA, 170 strikeouts and 94 hits allowed in 133 innings. He didn't have enough innings to qualify for the year-end leaderboard, but among players with at least 130 innings, here is where he ranked among NL pitchers:

• ERA: 1st (1.96)
• K/9: 1st (11.5)
• xFIP: 1st (2.54)
• xERA: 1st (2.50)
• K-BB%: 1st (26.8)
• K%: 1st (33.1)

He allowed two earned runs or fewer in 19 of his 23 starts, including each of his five appearances in September.

The Pirates are still in the process of trying to build their roster around their top players, including Skenes, but they have found the one thing that every MLB team is hoping for.

Skenes was a No. 1 starter the second he stepped onto a big-league diamond. He proved it with a historic debut season that earned him NL Rookie of the Year honors, making him the first Pirates player to win the award since Jason Bay in 2004.

Gil was rewarded for his efforts by winning Rookie of the Year after playing an integral role in the New York Yankees finishing with the best record in the American League during the regular season, Luis.

The 2024 season was actually the second time the Yankees tried to get Gil into their starting rotation. He fared well in his first exposure to MLB hitters with a 3.07 ERA in six starts late in the 2021 campaign, but an elbow injury early in 2022 that required Tommy John surgery kept him out of the big leagues for two years.

After a strong spring training, Gil earned the final spot in New York's starting rotation. He looked like a potential Cy Young contender in the first half with a 3.17 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 102.1 innings.

Things did get more difficult for Gil after the All-Star break as his control started to wane. He walked 28 hitters in 49.1 innings and posted a 4.20 ERA over his final 10 starts.

Despite some potential fatigue down the stretch, Gil's overall numbers in 2024 were very impressive. His 3.50 ERA was the best among all Yankees pitchers who started at least 20 games.

Among pitchers with at least 150 innings during the regular season, Gil's .189 batting average against was the second-lowest in MLB. Hunter Green of the Cincinnati Reds had a .183 average against in 150.1 innings.

Gil is the 10th Yankees player to win Rookie of the Year, breaking a tie with the Atlanta Braves for the second-most in MLB history. The Los Angeles Dodgers are far ahead of everyone else with 18 winners.

This is the first time a Yankees player has been named AL Rookie of the Year since Aaron Judge in 2017.