The Bronx Bombers Have One of the Best Rotations in Baseball

The team often referred to as the “Bronx Bombers” is actually off to an even better start on the starting pitching side of the game.

New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake has made the Yankees one of the best pitching development organizations in the league, and his hard work is most evident in the current big league rotation.

As the 2026 season approached, many Yankees fans had questions about how the rotation would look with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón starting the year on the IL, plus the addition of newcomer Ryan Weathers.

So far, early in the season, any doubts have been silenced by the fourth-best starter’s ERA in the majors at 3.30, mainly thanks to veteran Max Fried and the superstar breakout of Cam Schlittler.

That said, for a starting staff to have such good overall stats, the rest of the crew must hold their own. Indeed, all the arms that have stepped up for the Yankees are precisely why many fans didn’t overreact to the news that Fried was heading to the IL with a left elbow bone bruise.

Today, we will discuss the Yankees’ rotation and the pieces that have made it one of the league’s best starting staffs through the first two months of the season.

A New Ace in Town?

A starting pitcher on the New York Yankees leads the major leagues in ERA, and it’s not one of the three pitchers making more than $27 million per season.

After stamping his name in Yankee history during the 2025 playoffs, Cam Schlittler has shown that his performance was no fluke and that he is one of the best pitchers in the game right now.

After 11 starts to date (66 IP, first in MLB), Schlittler holds the league’s second-best WHIP (0.86), behind reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, and the fifth-most strikeouts with 75.

Schlittler’s arsenal features a fastball variation (cutter, four-seam, or sinker) over 90% of the time, a truly unreal thing for hitters to decipher so far. He uses his slider and curveball just around 8% of the time, easily one of the most intriguing pitching profiles in the game.

A huge part of Schlittler’s dominance, besides the arsenal itself, has been limiting the walks. This aspect is something he frequently mentions in post-game pressers as a main focus of his.

Schlittler has allowed just 13 walks so far, to the tune of a 5.1% walk rate, well below the MLB average of around 8.6%. On the flip side, he also carries a well-above-average strikeout percentage of 29.6%.

The excitement around a homegrown dominant starter like Schlitter is immensely high and easily the most hype since the days of Luis Severino.

All these facts are why Schlittler is a favorite among many to win the AL Cy Young in 2026 and the potential ace of the New York Yankees for the foreseeable future.

The Rest of the Staff

While yes, having guys like Fried and Schlittler helps a lot with the staff’s overall numbers, the Yankees wouldn’t be in this position without guys like Weathers and Will Warren.

Cole and Rodón have returned, and Elmer Rodriguez has made a few starts as well, but right now, I am going to focus on the two main guys who have anchored the back end of the rotation and have made 19 starts combined.

Will Warren

Will Warren was a rotation regular in 2025 after 22.2 IP in ’24, and he showed some solid flashes but also left something to be desired.

In 2026 so far, Warren has demonstrated that he is moving closer to becoming an excellent major league starter.

While the ERA is respectable at 3.61, some of his other numbers stand out more.

Warren has posted a 3.02 FIP and a 1.185 WHIP, showing that he is missing bats while also doing a good overall job at keeping hitters off the bases. The ERA might be experiencing some inflation due to factors out of his control.

Similar to Schlittler’s strikeout and walk percentages, Warren is striking out 28.2% while walking just 5.9% of the hitters he faces, truly spectacular numbers.

The 26-year-old has turned up the strikeouts this season, logging multiple outings with nine-plus strikeouts; he ranks 10th in the AL with 62 total punchouts.

Last season, Warren had three starts with nine-plus strikeouts in 33 starts, and he already has two in his first 10 starts this year.

Ryan Weathers

Weathers has shown that he can be a reliable major league pitcher with solid velocity; the questions surrounding him were about staying healthy and consistent.

So far in 2026, Weathers continues the trend of Yankee starters with amazing strikeout and walk percentages. He has posted a 29.9% K% while holding a 6.4% walk rate. For reference, Weathers never had a K% above 23% in any prior season.

A big discussion around Weathers in the coming months will be about his workload and monitoring his health closely. Weathers is already at 50.1 IP, and he has never pitched more than 94 innings in a season, which was his rookie year in 2021.

With that being said, the 26-year-old has shown impressive durability in several starts this year, logging multiple seven-plus inning starts, including an eight-inning gem against the Athletics on April 9.

If the conversation of moving a starter to the bullpen comes back up when everyone is healthy, Weathers is my leading candidate for the bullpen based on his health history and the fact that he could be a viable lefty option throwing in the upper 90s.

The Yankees front office took a bit of a risk trading for Weathers and then banking on him being his former self and fully healthy, but it has certainly paid off so far.

Both Warren and Weathers could easily be the second or third starters on many teams in the league. They deserve their recognition and praise for making this rotation so great, even while Schlittler and the other bigger names tend to get a lot more of the attention.