{"id":852309,"date":"2026-11-13T04:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T04:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/852309\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T04:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T04:22:03","slug":"for-yankees-cam-schlittler-sky-is-the-limit-after-winning-al-cy-young-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/852309\/","title":{"rendered":"For Yankees\u2019 Cam Schlittler, sky is the limit after winning AL Cy Young Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/2026-07-11T211616Z_1226460618_MT1USATODAY29371165_RTRMADP_3_MLB-NEW-YORK-YANKEES-AT-WASHINGTON-NATIO.jpeg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"Cam Schlittler Yankees Nationals\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   title=\"For Yankees' Cam Schlittler, sky is the limit after winning AL Cy Young Award 1\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Jul 10, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) throws to the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>What could Cam Schlittler possibly do for an encore?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The New York Yankees\u2019 right-handed ace just put together one of the greatest pitching seasons in franchise history in what was his first full season in the majors. He now has the hardware to show for it, as he was unanimously named the American League Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always had a lot of confidence in myself, and that\u2019s kind of how I\u2019ve gotten to this point,\u201d Schlittler said. \u201cRealistically, when you come into your first full season, do you think you\u2019re going to do that? Maybe not, but you also have the confidence that you can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old went 14-6 with a league-best 1.95 ERA and a 6.2 pitching WAR. He also held opponents to an AL-leading .244 on-base percentage. That 1.95 ERA is the third-lowest ever by a qualified starting pitcher in franchise history behind Spud Chandler (1.64 in 1943) and Ron Guidry (1.74 in 1978).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His 239 strikeouts are tied for fourth-most in team history.<\/p>\n<p>He is the seventh Yankee to win the Cy Young Award, joining Bob Turley (1958), Whitey Ford (1961), Sparky Lyle (1977), Guidry (1978), Roger Clemens (2001), and Gerrit Cole (2023). Only Guidry and Cole were unanimous winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His place in the Yankees\u2019 annals is impressive enough, but perhaps what isn\u2019t being talked about enough is just how good of a season this was from someone so young \u2014 and how rare it has been.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since the start of the live ball era (1920), only five qualified pitchers in the American League age 25 or younger have had a full season with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/stathead\/baseball\/player-pitching-season-finder.cgi?request=1&amp;order_by_asc=1&amp;order_by=p_earned_run_avg&amp;role=starter&amp;games_started=60&amp;games_relieved=80&amp;qualifiers=eratitle&amp;minIpVal=162&amp;minDecVal=14&amp;mingamesVal=40&amp;comp_id%5B%5D=AL&amp;age_max=25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">1.95 ERA or better<\/a>: Hal Newhouser (1.81 in 1945, 1.94 in 1946), Sam McDowell (1.81 in 1968), Dave McNally (1.95 in 1968), Vida Blue (1.82 in 1971), and Blake Snell (1.89 in 2018).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCam had as dominant a season as a starting pitcher can have from start to finish,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cHe\u2019s shown an astonishing amount of growth since we drafted him, and his success is no accident. Cam has a tireless appetite for hard work and refinement that has allowed his talents to truly flourish. This Cy Young is richly deserved. Cam was the most dominant pitcher in our league and continues to grow into a foundational player for this franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, somehow, Schlittler still thinks his ceiling is higher than this \u2014 though it is mostly predicated on team success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely could have had a better season,\u201d Schlittler said. \u201cWe had a few hiccups along the road, so realistically, I think there are things I can get better at. I feel like the season was great, but as you look at how it finished, things definitely could have been better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jul 10, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) throws to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,20455,4,415,185,414,71,4222,142],"class_list":["post-852309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-cam-schlittler","tag-mlb","tag-nationals","tag-sports","tag-washington","tag-washington-nationals","tag-washingtonnationals","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117607225409242097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}