Cam Schlittler Has Wrapped Up the AL Cy Young Race
With his latest scoreless gem, Schlittler may have ended the AL Cy Young conversation. It's his to lose.
Postseason baseball is right around the corner, which means it’s time to analyze a certain starting pitcher who seems to have American League Cy Young honors pretty much wrapped up with a bow.
I’m talking about New York Yankees ace Cam Schlittler, who’s in the midst of an incredibly successful second season in the majors and looks like he’ll be a force in the league for a long time.
After former Detroit Tigers star Tarik Skubal walked away with the American League Cy Young in both 2024 and 2025, Schlittler is looking to assert himself as the new frontline pitcher in the American League. Let’s just say if Skubal didn’t get traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and still remained on the Detroit Tigers, Schlittler probably still would have the upper hand, which is pretty impressive.
Other elite arms like Dylan Cease, Parker Messick, Drew Rasmussen and Reid Detmers have certainly given him a run for his money, but Schlittler is likely to take home the hardware when it’s all said and done.
He is also looking to be the Yankees’ second Cy Young Award winner in the last four years. Gerrit Cole took home the honors in 2023 after his excellent campaign, in which he owned a 2.63 ERA and 0.98 WHIP. Schlittler’s 2026 campaign has actually been even better.
Now that everything has been set up, it’s time to dig deeper into what has fueled Schlittler’s elite 2026 campaign.
*Stats pulled from games completed through September 14.
Schlittler Came Out of the Blue, Kind Of
Up until the 2025 season, most people probably didn’t even know who Cam Schlittler was and what organization he was a part of. He was drafted by the Yankees in the seventh round of the 2022 draft out of Northeastern University.
He was an all-around solid pitcher in college over his three seasons, posting a 2.62 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, with 30 out of his 31 appearances being starts.
Schlittler didn’t make his affiliated debut within the Yankees system until the 2023 season and showed mixed results between rookie ball, Single-A, and High-A.
Even though he struck out a lot of batters and kept home runs to a minimum, he issued a lot of walks, which inflated his surface numbers.
Over the next two years spanning the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he gradually made his way through the Yankees’ minor league system and started to show some solid improvements.
By the time the 2025 campaign rolled around, Schlittler found himself on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Yankees’ top 30 prospects for the first time, being slotted in at number 12.
He was mowing down hitters, limiting walks, limiting home runs and was simply putting it all together between Double-A and Triple-A.
| Season | HR/9 | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2023 | 0.8 | 4.1 | 9.8 |
| 2024 | 0.7 | 4.1 | 11.5 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 11.6 |
Schlittler’s excellent performance was evident to the Yankees front office, and the organization decided it was time to give him a shot at the major league level. Let’s just say it’s been stunning to see what he’s been able to accomplish so quickly.
Pure Dominance in the Majors
Now that I’ve highlighted Schlittler’s underlooked journey to the big leagues, hopefully you’ll appreciate his insane numbers a little more and notice how far he has come along in terms of development.
He had a nice cup of tea with the Yankees in 2025 after he debuted on July 9, finishing the season with an excellent 2.96 ERA and 1.22 WHIP spanning a stretch of 14 starts. A majority of his growth in the minor leagues had carried over to the majors, which was really encouraging to see.
Last year, Schlittler gave us a little glimpse into what he’d provide long term, but no one realized what kind of pitching monster he’d turn into presently in 2026.
You could even argue that he’s been better than Jacob Misiorowski because their numbers have pretty much been identical, give or take. That means you could argue he’s the best pitcher in the majors currently.
So far in 2026, across 31 starts and 184.2 innings pitched, Schlittler has shown pure dominance, pitching to a superb 1.95 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. His ratios have been really good, as backed up by his excellent 6 H/9, 0.8 HR/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 11.1 K/9.
Schlittler currently leads the American League with 5.9 fWAR. He ranks second overall, only trailing Misirowski, who has been worth 6.0 fWAR.
His underlying peripherals look great, including his 2.87 xERA and 2.57 FIP. That is a result of his ability to limit dangerous contact and total baserunners via low hit and walk rates, as previously mentioned.
In terms of pitching run value calculated by Baseball Savant, Schlittler ranks fourth in the majors, currently worth +38 runs. He trails only Yoshinobu Yamamoto (39), Dylan Cease (39) and Jacob Misiorowski (47).
The reason as to why his pitching run value is so high is because of how effective his pitch arsenal has been. Schlittler primarily works with four quality pitches: a four-seam fastball (44%), cutter (25%), sinker (20%) and curveball (10%).
The fastball combo of his four-seam and sinker has been lethal and goes to show how important and effective tunneling can be.
Schlittler’s fastball, which averages 98 mph, is worth a +27 run value, and batters have only managed a .164 batting average and .230 wOBA against the offering. His counterpart 97.8 mph sinker is being valued at a +11 run value, with a .172 batting average and .266 xwOBA.
Also note that Schlittler has 6.8 feet of extension, which places him in the 81st percentile. This helps create a faster perceived velocity for an already powerful fastball mix.
His cutter, which averages 94.7 mph, has been a hint above average with a +1 run value, while his 86.3 mph curveball has been his worst and least-used pitch, worth -1 in run value. If Schlittler can improve just one of those pitches, it could be wraps for his opponents.
Schlittler’s stuff has been very good, to say the least, and batters are having a really hard time making contact on his offerings. His current 34.2% chase rate ranks in the 85th percentile, while his 29.1% whiff rate ranks in the 79th percentile.
Despite the fact that opponents are making limited contact with Schlittler’s offerings, they still have managed to make decent contact when they do connect.
This is one of the few flaws in Schlittler’s already great profile that could use some improvement. Opponents have managed a 7.7% barrel rate (45th percentile) and 39.1% hard-hit (44th percentile) rate against him. Those numbers aren’t bad, but they could be better.
Will Schlittler Take Home AL Cy Young Honors?
Plain and simple, Schlittler has been dominant. And there’s actually a good chance he gets even better down the road based on what we’ve looked at.
It seems very likely that Schlittler will be named the 2026 American League Cy Young when it’s all said and done. Cease has pleaded his case in the best way he’s able to, but all signs are pointing to Schlittler.
Simply just looking at Schlittler’s and Cease’s second-half splits pretty much ends the conversation.
Yordan Alvarez seems like the leading candidate for American League Most Valuable Player, but you’d think Schlittler will be considered there as well. Alvarez leads all AL batters with 5.8 fWAR, but Schlittler does have him topped with 5.9 fWAR — something to keep an eye out for.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but Schlittler looks to have wrapped up the conversation for the American League Cy Young.
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Written by
Cade Lalim is a freshman at Irvine Valley College. He's currently a journalism intern at Just Baseball covering the Los Angeles Angels, while also contributing to…