New York Yankees’ Cam Schlittler throws against the Washington Nationals during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
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It is easy to see why any potential trading partners were possibly seeking Cam Schlittler as part of a return package in any trade. It also is not hard to see why the Yankees were reluctant to do business in any transaction that included him becoming a former member of the organization.
Schlittler’s experience consisted of three major league starts spanning 14 2/3 innings against the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays when the trade deadline came and went on July 31 with the Yankees making seven trades that did not include his name being on the outgoing package.
“I knew it was going to be really hard for our guys to trade him,” Boone told reporters Monday afternoon. “I’m sure they would have had to have been overwhelmed with something. I think that’s how we view Cam. This is a future staple of our rotation.”
In five starts since the Yankees determined they should keep Schlitter, he has allowed five runs in 27 2/3 innings and none in his last two starts. Perhaps the only unfortunate part of scheduling is he was not lined up to face his hometown Boston Red Sox, who outscored the Yankees 19-4 in the first three games before Sunday when the Yankees avoided their first four-game sweep at home to the Red Sox since Ted Williams was a rookie in 1939.
Instead, Schlittler was lined up when the Yankees returned to a soft spot in the schedule against the Washington Nationals, the team with the second-worst record in the National League.
On a night when the New York teams were home at the same time and combined for 23 runs to potentially change the vibes around their postseason chances, Schlittler dominated with six scoreless innings as a nice follow up to his flirtation with history and mention in wire service bulletins when he retired the first 18 hitters before giving up a single to Chandler Simpson in Tampa Bay on Wednesday.
Schlittler will get his next start against the Chicago White Sox when he attempts to get the likes of Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero out. Then he might face the Houston Astros or Blue Jays before getting starts against the Tigers or in Boston.
Until then the Yankees and anyone else can only go with how he is faring in the present and the answer is pretty good and really well of late, showcasing a 101 mph fastball that resulted in a called third strike on James Wood to open Monday’s game.
Schlittler is 24-years-old and a former high school kid who told Rob Bradford of the Baseball Isn’t Boring Podcast that loaded Christmas trees on cars as a high school job growing up in Walpole, Massachusetts, a south suburb of Boston near Foxboro.
In other words, his age does not necessarily earn him the notoriety of Anthony Volpe, who was a first round pick as an 18-year-old in 2019 and Jasson Dominguez, who was signed as as a 16-year-old international free agent a month after Volpe was drafted and already was nicknamed “The Martian”.
Volpe and Dominguez were already in their fourth season in the organization when Schlitter was drafted in 2022 out of Northeastern. It was a seventh-round pick, which can be the places in the draft where teams hope it pans out and the added velocity has made it seem like it might.
“In ’22, he was throwing 91-92 miles an hour,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “But was a strike-thrower right away, and now, all of a sudden, in a couple years, he’s added 6, 7, 8 miles an hour to the fastball. Still [has] the ability to throw strikes . I think it’s just he’s physically matured a lot, and obviously the stuff has gone to another level in pretty short order. So that’s allowed him to kind of ascend somewhat quietly and quickly now here in the last year and a half”
In a year when the Yankees can be maddening inconsistent like many others in the sport, pleasant surprises emerge and it seems like Schlittler is fitting the description in the middle of a hotly contested playoff race.
“He’s put in the work,” Rice told reporters. “He’s made himself into a really good pitcher.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryfleisher/2025/08/26/in-the-midst-of-playoff-race-cam-schlittler-emerges-as-pleasant-surprise-for-yankees/
