Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Yankees' Cam Schlittler Flashes Worrisome Signs in Difficult Start Versus Blue Jays

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Zach Kaplan | Last updated Sep 5, 2025 11:27 PM ET

Former top Yankees prospect Cam Schlittler has been billed as one of the Yankees' most holistic success stories of this season, and for good reason. Schlittler held opponents to three runs or fewer in his first nine starts, and he flourished after his first strikeout was a triumph over strong MVP candidate Cal Raleigh.

Schlittler failed to make it through the sixth inning in his first six career starts, mostly due to lengthy innings and a tendency to try to make the perfect pitch. As is, Schlittler has electric stuff, but perfectionism was his Achilles' heel.

That tendency declined over his three starts from August 20 to August 30, where Schlittler showed legitimate ace upside including his 6 2/3 no-hit innings against Tampa Bay.

Unfortunately, they appeared once again on Friday, in an inopportune spot.

Schlittler only made it through 1 2/3 innings after delivering 66 pitches. The majority of the damage came in the first inning, where the Blue Jays, who plated eight batters, fought their way to 40 pitches.

The rookie didn't allow any massively hard-hit balls, with Daulton Varsho's 100 mile per hour base hit being the quickest exit velocity. For a guy with high-octane, high velocity start, that statistic reflects his ability to keep the Blue Jays off-balance.

The issue, however, was that the Jays clearly came into this game with a game-plan to try to battle each at-bat, and challenge the young righty to work deep at-bats and avoid making mistakes, which led to a cycle of overthrowing and overthinking. Schlittler walked two but threw 46 of his 66 pitches for strikes.

Schlittler looked to be the Yankees' potential Game 2 or Game 3 starter in a Wild Card or ALDS scenario, but he will need to avoid a death by a thousand cuts if he's to have success in October.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: