Yankees’ Playoff Rotation Must Feature Cam Schlittler

Max Fried was in Cy Young contention for quite some time until a rough July (26.0 IP, 5.54 ERA) tanked his chances of keeping up with the likes of Tarik Skubal, Hunter Brown, and Garrett Crochet for the award. Carlos Rodón has had what is undoubtedly his best season in pinstripes, posting a 3.12 ERA over 29 starts and leading the team with 180 strikeouts. Oh, and both of them have at least 16 wins apiece (Fried just won his 17th game), the first pair of Yankees since Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes in 2012 to do so in the same season.

For the most part, New York has had one of the most reliable rotations in all of baseball, and this is thanks in large part to the role of Schlittler, who made his MLB debut in July and hasn’t looked back since. Since his debut on July 9th, the Yankees have the 5th-best rotation ERA in MLB.

Holy Schlitt!

Schlittler has been one of the most fascinating young pitchers in the league this season, sporting a stunning 3.05 ERA through his first 11 starts of the year. He is one of five Yankee rookies since 2000 to have an ERA below 3.10 through their first 11 starts, alongside Joba Chamberlain in 2008, Masahiro Tanaka in 2014, Luis Severino in 2015, and Nestor Cortes in 2019.

Baseball Savant’s Run Value (RV) determines the value of a given pitch and Schlittler’s four-seam fastball (97.9 MPH) has a +6 RV, making it tied for the seventh-most valuable pitch on the Yankees’ staff this season – and third among NYY four-seamers. Schlittler’s arsenal contains a slow cutter (6.5 MPH difference from fastball!), a curveball (83.2 MPH), and a sweeper (87.9 MPH), so he’s got plenty of glove-side movement that makes righty-righty matchups a nightmare for opposing hitters. In fact, he’s got the second-fastest sweeper in all of MLB this season.

His 1.0 fWAR ranks fourth among Yankees pitchers this season behind Carlos Rodón (2.8), Max Fried (4.1) and Clarke Schmidt (1.3) which is also good enough to be tied for the 9th-highest mark among rookie pitchers this season. He is also one of only six rookies in 2025 to have a K/9 rate above 10.0 over at least 50 innings of work (10.1 K/9), and his 3.05 ERA is by the third-lowest amongst rooke pitchers that are primarily starters.

Schlittler has been an elite strikeout pitcher in general, not just in comparison to fellow rookies. He has gone at least five innings in all but two of his 11 starts this season, and he’s notched at least six strikeouts seven times already. Even though he’s only appeared in a diminished number of games in 2025, he’s still contributed greatly to the team’s success. While he might not yet be one of the league’s premier arms, his consistency and ability to miss bats at a high rate is key to the Yankees’ success as the season nears its close.

Postseason Starter?

The New York Yankees (as of September 15th) look poised to hold one of the American League’s three Wild Card spots and will participate in the Wild Card Series. If the playoffs began today, the Yankees would be taking on the Boston Red Sox in a best-of-three Wild Card Series matchup, with the winner taking on the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS.

Either way, a Wild Card Series or ALDS berth would require at least a three-man rotation that could very well include Schlittler. Fried and Rodón have both pitched like aces for the Yankees this season, so they would ultimately get games one and two, but it’d be up to manager Aaron Boone to determine whether Warren and his 30 starts this season instill more confidence than Schlittler’s much better ERA over a smaller sample size.

It’s a matter of waiting and seeing if the Yankees would decide to give Schlittler the ball in such an opportunity for a Game 3 appearance in the postseason, but given his performance thus far in his young career he just might be prepared for it already. Five of Schlittler’s 11 starts came against teams that currently lead their division (Seattle and Houston tied in the AL West), so he’s shown that he can stymie tough opposition.

He’s even opposed legends of the game like Max Scherzer and taken on some playoff-bound teams’ aces in Kevin Gausman of the Blue Jays and Hunter Brown of the Astros, who was Just Baseball’s runner-up for August Pitcher of the Month behind Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers. The point is, although Schlittler doesn’t have much of a career resume thus far, he just might be ready for the big moment already. The Yankees don’t have many other reliable starting options besides Fried, Rodón and potentially Will Warren.

Schlittler might have to compete with 2024 American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil for a spot in the playoff rotation, but Gil has only made seven starts since returning from the IL stint that derailed nearly his entire 2025 season. Schlittler seems poised to become the Yankees’ next big performer in October, so watch out for the hard-throwing young righty.

Closing Thoughts

Cam Schlittler has shown an incredible amount of talent in his 11 games at the big-league level in 2025, and the Yankees might reward him with a shot to start in the postseason. With the Yankees making a push for the AL East division title, his consistently strong performances surely won’t go unrewarded.

The 24-year-old rookie will surpass his rookie eligibility limits this season because he’s pitched more than 50 innings, but don’t be misguided by the fact that he probably won’t win Rookie of the Year. Schlittler has provided plenty of stability to a Yankees rotation that is without two of its strongest and most tenured arms in Cole and Schmidt. Schlittler boasts an elite 98 MPH fastball and he’s going to use it to the best of his ability as the games become more and more important.