On the penultimate day of the regular season, the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates met on a cloudy afternoon at Yankee Stadium for a game of little consequence. The Yankees had already clinched the American League East title. The last-place Pirates were 24 hours from another long offseason.

But the game featured an intriguing matchup within the matchup: two starting pitchers with vastly different backgrounds and histories who happened to be leading contenders for the Rookie of the Year Award in their respective leagues to the mound opposite each other.

For the Pirates: Paul Skenes, the hyped generational talent 14 months removed from college. For the Yankees: Luis Gil, a 26-year-old revelation two-plus years removed from Tommy John surgery.

Nearly two months after that meeting, the two right-handers were recognized Monday as the best rookies in their leagues. Skenes was voted the National League’s Rookie of the Year, beating out a loaded field headlined by outfielders Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio after posting one of the best rookie seasons for a pitcher in major league history. Gil edged out teammate and catcher Austin Wells and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser to win the award in the American League in a tight race.

Skenes, who debuted less than a year after being selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, surpassed expectations in his first taste of the big leagues to become the second Rookie of the Year award winner in Pirates history (Jason Bay, 2004) with 23 of the 30 first-place votes. With the honor, he earned a full year of service time despite not being called up to the majors until May, making him eligible for free agency after the 2029 season.

“Our goal, first and foremost, was to make all my starts,” said Skenes, a former two-way star at Air Force who became a full-time pitcher his junior season at LSU in 2023. “And then, beyond that, it was basically to see the best version of me that I can be out there. So I felt very good about that this year. Stayed healthy and felt really good the entire year. And then the results, I think, speak for themselves.”

Skenes, 22, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts across 133 innings. His 1.96 ERA was the lowest for any rookie with at least 20 starts in the live ball era, dating to 1920, and the lowest in baseball in 2024 among pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched. His 0.95 WHIP was tied for best in the National League. His 170 strikeouts were a franchise rookie record. His 4.3 fWAR ranked 10th among major league pitchers. With the performance, he was selected one of the three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award along with veterans Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler. That winner will be announced Wednesday.

On Monday, Merrill finished second with the other seven first-place votes and Chourio in third. Merrill, a shortstop in the minors through last season, was the San Diego Padres‘ starting center fielder on Opening Day at just 20 years old. He excelled in all facets, finishing the season with a .292/.326/.500 slash line, 24 home runs, 90 RBIs and 16 steals in 156 games while playing above-average defense. His 5.3 fWAR led all rookies.

Chourio, who doesn’t turn 21 until March, signed an $82 million extension last offseason before making his major league debut and, after a slow start, lived up to the investment. Chourio went on a tear after carrying a .201 batting average and .575 OPS through June 1, batting .305 with 16 home runs and an .888 OPS over his final 97 games.

In the American League, Gil tallied 15 of the 30 first-place votes, narrowly topping Cowser, who finished with 13 first-place votes and five points behind Gil. Oakland A’s closer Mason Miller and Cleveland Guardians reliever Cade Smith each earned one first-place vote. The five-point differential marks the second-closest election in an AL Rookie of the Year race since the three-player ballot was introduced in 2003.

“I was focused on having a good year, on helping the team win as much as I could and being focused on my career,” Gil said.

Gil entered spring training an afterthought in the Yankees’ plan, slated to start the season in the minors after being sent to minor league camp in early March. The Yankees had their starting rotation set. Gil had electric stuff but command was a concern and he logged only four innings in A-ball in 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022. Then Gerrit Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, was shut down because of an elbow injury shortly thereafter, opening a spot for Gil. He did not relinquish it.

Gil went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 29 starts. He led all AL rookies in wins, innings pitched (151⅔) and strikeouts (171). His 1.82 ERA through 12 starts helped the Yankees navigate the club’s 2½ months without Cole to start the season and solidified his place in the rotation for the remainder of the season. He gave up one or fewer hits in five outings, tied for the most by a rookie since the mound was moved to 60 feet, six inches in 1893, according to ESPN Research. He didn’t giver up an earned run in six of his starts, the most by a Yankees rookie since 1913.

Signed by the Minnesota Twins out of the Dominican Republic in 2015 and traded to the Yankees three years later, Gil is the 10th Yankees player to win the honor. He is the first Yankee to win it since Aaron Judge in 2017 and the first Yankees pitcher since Dave Righetti in 1981. He is the fifth Dominican-born player to win the award.

“He worked so hard to put himself in a strong position heading into spring training after coming back from Tommy John surgery,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in a statement. “Without a guarantee of a major-league spot, he absolutely kicked in the door this spring and went on to have a phenomenal rookie season. Luis continued to mature and develop all year and was one of the pillars of our rotation.”

Unlike Gil, there was little doubt Skenes was a major league-caliber pitcher out of spring training, but the Pirates chose to not include him on their Opening Day roster. The rationale was simple: Skenes logged just 6⅔ innings as a pro in 2023 after he accumulated 122⅔ innings for LSU. So Skenes was sent to Triple-A for more seasoning and dominated on a limited workload. In seven starts, Skenes posted a 0.99 ERA with 45 strikeouts across 27⅓ innings.

Finally, on May 11, Skenes made his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs. He gave up three runs with seven strikeouts over four innings. He would give up three or more earned runs only twice more over his final 22 starts.

His first 11 outings were so dominant (1.90 ERA, 89 strikeouts to 13 walks in 66⅓ innings and seven no-hit innings in his final start of the first half against the Milwaukee Brewers) that he was named the starting pitcher for the NL All-Star team, setting the stage for an electric first inning in Arlington, Texas, against four of the sport’s best hitters. Skenes, the fifth rookie to ever start the exhibition, threw 16 pitches to Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. He walked Soto in an otherwise clean inning. He touched 100 mph and showcased his splinker — a splitter-sinker hybrid. The sequence, like every one of his starts, was must-watch television.

He pitched into the ninth inning for the first time as a pro in his first start after the All-Star Game, taking a hard-luck 2-1 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals after giving up a run in the ninth. But Pittsburgh, despite adding players at the trade deadline, fell out of the wild-card race down the stretch.

The Pirates, cautious to not overwork Skenes, had him pitch on extra rest — either five or six days — in all of his starts. But he logged at least six innings in 16 of his 23 starts. He threw at least 100 pitches in nine of them. He closed his season strong, giving up only two runs in five September starts. His final outing was brief but spectacular: Two perfect innings at Yankee Stadium, one of the sport’s grandest stages, opposite one of his most talented peers.

The goal next year? To pitch deeper into games more often from Opening Day.

“I think just being able to stay out there for seven or eight innings rather than five or six innings every outing, that’s going to be the biggest thing,” Skenes said. “We’re starting with the end in mind. We’re going to figure out how to do that.”

Iowa quarterback Brendan Sullivan will miss this week’s game at Maryland and likely the rest of the regular season with an ankle injury, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Cade McNamara, who opened the past two seasons as the Hawkeyes’ starter but has been out since late October with a concussion, is set to start this week against the Terrapins. McNamara, a transfer from Michigan, is listed on Iowa’s depth chart with sophomore Jackson Stratton as his backup. Sullivan is not listed.

Sullivan, a transfer from Northwestern, sustained the injury during a Nov. 11 loss at UCLA. He had 344 passing yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and 144 rushing yards and four scores this season.

McNamara has completed 60.5% of his passes for 1,017 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions this season. Sullivan took over as Iowa’s starting quarterback after McNamara sustained his concussion in an Oct. 26 game vs. Northwestern.

McNamara missed most of last season with an ACL tear.

Iowa is 1-3 on the road this season. Former Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, the son of Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz, is serving as a senior offensive analyst for Maryland.

247 Sports first reported that Sullivan is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Alabama completed the flip of four-star Michigan pledge Ivan Taylor on Monday night, sealing a key defensive commitment in the closing stages of the 2025 cycle.

Taylor, a 6-foot, 175-pound defensive back from Winter Garden, Florida, is ESPN’s No. 5 cornerback in the 2025 class and No. 50 in the 2025 ESPN 300. He lands with the Crimson Tide as the sixth-ranked member of Kalen DeBoer’s inaugural class, which now includes pledges from three ESPN 300 cornerback prospects.

Taylor became the second-ranked member of Michigan’s 2025 class when he flipped his pledge to the Wolverines from Notre Dame in July. However, Taylor remained in touch with Alabama through the fall, including a visit to the Crimson Tide on Sept. 28, and he now stands as the 14th top-300 pledge in the nation’s top-ranked class.

“Happy to announce my commitment to the University of Alabama,” Taylor wrote in a social media post Monday night. “I’m blessed for the opportunity, and I look forward to playing for Coach DeBoer and his staff. Roll tide!”

With his pledge, Taylor joins four-star defenders Dijon Lee Jr. (No. 32 in the ESPN 300) and Chuck McDonald III as the third top-15 cornerback commit in Alabama’s incoming class.

His commitment comes in the wake of a week of recruiting losses that saw the Crimson Tide lose ESPN 300 pledges from wide receiver Caleb Cunningham (Ole Miss flip), running back Anthony Rogers (uncommitted) and linebacker Dawson Merritt (Nebraska flip).

Alabama visits Oklahoma in Week 13 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.