It’s a combo….not one or the other to me. Skenes has to clearly be in a separate class of individual numbers to win it. It appears he does.
But if Peralta closes that gap enough….Skenes struggles and Peralta has 20 plus wins with 3 or 4 stellar starts, I would give it to him. Again, cry all you want about being on a poor team, games pitched for Peralta in a pennant race are much more meaningful for a starter. The team is depending on you to perform, stop a losing streak, pitch that extra inning to save the bullpen, etc. Not so much with Skenes this year or last.
For anyone not to take those differences into account, they are not living in reality. Clemens would get my vote for CY Young that year for this reason too. Brewers were just not competitive enough. The games down the stretch carried little weight. Sheets looked a little better by individual numbers, but still not enough on a bottom dwelling team where very little in game pressure lived.