By end of Cy Young-worthy season, Cam Schlittlers peers only found in record books
Amid all the anger, frustration and pitchforks around the swept-out-of-the-playoffs Yankees and their fanbase, there is the bright, shining and flame-throwing light that is Cam Schlittler. There are no rings, but there probably will be hardware for the Yankees ace, whose dominance, from the start of the season through the end, likely will culminate with the American League Cy Young Award on Wednesday. Schlittler, the favorite, is a finalist alongside Toronto’s Dylan Cease and Cleveland’s Parker Messick in a competition that Schlittler’s manager essentially declared over in September. “He’s the best pitcher in the league,” Aaron Boone said then of Schlittler, who had emerged from obscurity to assert himself as one of the premier arms in the game. Toward the end of the season — about when Cease began to slow down in September and then was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation — Schlittler’s competition transitioned from his peers to his baseball ancestors.Cease (2.40 ERA with 239 strikeouts in 169 innings) was excellent in his first season with the Blue Jays, and Messick (2.56 ERA in 32 starts and 186 ¹/₃ innings) was extraordinary while finishing as the runner-up for AL Rookie of the Year. But neither hung with the best pitcher on a Yankees staff that included Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón. This season, Schlittler’s 1.95 ERA was the best in the American League — only trailing Jacob Misiorowski’s 1.80 mark in the majors — and the third lowest in franchise history, behind Spud Chandler’s 1.64 in 1943 and Ron Guidry’s 1.74 in 1978.
He allowed one run or fewer in 21 starts, which led the majors and was a franchise record.His 239 strikeouts were tied with Jack Chesbro (1904) for fourth most by a Yankees pitcher ever, trailing Cole (257 in 2022 and 243 in 2021) and Guidry (248 in 1978).
His 1.16 ERA in 17 road starts was the fifth lowest such mark in a season since 1913, behind Bob Gibson’s 0.81 ERA in 1...