2025 MLB All-Star Game: Pirates' Paul Skenes and Tigers' Tarik Skubal named starting pitchers for Tuesday
It will be Skenes' second straight All-Star Game start

The reigning AL Cy Young winner and the best young pitcher in baseball will be on the mound for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game next Tuesday at Truist Park in Atlanta. Detroit Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal and Pittsburgh Pirates righty Paul Skenes have been named the All-Star Game starting pitchers. Fox's Saturday night MLB broadcast made the announcement.
Here is Skenes receiving the call from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who will manage the National League team.
The call to National League Starting Pitcher, Paul Skenes 🥲 pic.twitter.com/s38F41vV4o
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 12, 2025
At 23, Skenes will become the youngest pitcher ever to start back-to-back All-Star Games, surpassing Hall of Famer Robin Roberts. Roberts started the 1950 and 1951 All-Star Games at ages 23 and 24. Skenes leads baseball with a 2.01 ERA and has struck out 131 batters in 121 innings. He was NL Rookie of the Year last season and finished third in the NL Cy Young voting.
As for Skubal, he appeared in the All-Star Game last season, but did not start. It was his first All-Star Game nod. He went on to win the AL Cy Young unanimously. Skubal has been even better this season, with a lower ERA (2.39 vs. 2.23), a lower WHIP (0.92 vs. 0.83), and a higher strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.51 vs. 9.56). He's emerged as the game's most dominant pitcher.
Skenes and Skubal are certainly deserving of the All-Star Game start, though options were a bit limited. Several other candidates to start the All-Star Game have withdrawn from the contest for workload reasons, including Hunter Brown (Houston Astros), Garrett Crochet (Boston Red Sox), Max Fried (New York Yankees), and Zack Wheeler (Philadelphia Phillies).
Here are the full All-Star Game rosters. The starting position players are selected through fan voting. The reserve position players and pitchers are selected through player voting and selection by the commissioner's office. The starting pitchers are typically selected by the managers -- Roberts and Yankees skipper Aaron Boone -- after consulting with the pitcher's team.
The 95th annual All-Star Game will be played Tuesday, July 15. The American League has won 10 of the last 11 All-Star Games, though the all-time series is much closer at 48-44-2 in favor of the AL.