NEW YORK — One of the Yankees’ most important successes in 2026 began well before a packed Yankee Stadium watched Cam Schlittler pitch like an ace. It took shape on minor league fields, where a young right-hander turned raw power into a reliable weapon and began climbing through New York’s system.
Schlittler finished the season with a 1.95 ERA, the franchise’s lowest qualifying mark since Ron Guidry’s 1.74 in 1978. His emergence helped the Yankees build the majors’ best pitching staff by ERA even as injuries forced changes across the rotation. For a team that repeatedly leaned on its pitching to stay afloat, that kind of internal development was worth more than another expensive acquisition.
The Yankees’ broader pitching operation also delivered. New York finished with a 3.23 staff ERA, ahead of Milwaukee’s 3.51. Those results reflected contributions from the major league coaches, the scouting department and the minor league instructors who helped pitchers arrive ready to contribute.
Now the organization faces a test that will not appear on a transaction ledger. The Yankees can retain the pitchers who broke through, but holding together the teaching network that developed them is a different challenge. Another American League club has identified one of the people in that network as a candidate for a much larger job.
Houston takes a Yankees development coach
The Houston Astros are hiring Spencer Medick, the Yankees’ Triple-A pitching coach in 2026, as their new director of pitching, according to reports Tuesday. The move takes Medick out of New York’s farm system and gives him a broader leadership role in Houston’s pitching operation.
Medick, 35, joined the Yankees organization in 2022. He coached pitchers at Hudson Valley that year, worked in the Florida Complex League in 2023 and returned to Hudson Valley in 2024. He moved to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as bullpen coach in 2025 before becoming the RailRiders’ pitching coach this season.
His experience predates the Yankees. Medick worked as a throwing trainer at Driveline Baseball from 2019 through 2021, a background that fits the emphasis modern organizations place on individualized pitch development and throwing programs.
The RailRiders ranked fourth in the International League in ERA and strikeouts per nine innings in 2026. That performance provides one measure of the upper-level pitching environment Medick leaves behind, although it does not isolate the work of any one coach.
The Schlittler connection predates his breakthrough
The clearest Yankees connection runs through Hudson Valley in 2024. Medick was the Renegades’ pitching coach when Schlittler earned South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year honors. That is a direct player-coach relationship, not merely an association with the same organization.
In 17 High-A starts that season, Schlittler went 6-4 with a 2.60 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 86 2/3 innings. Opponents batted .191 against him. He advanced to Double-A Somerset and continued his rise toward the majors.
When the league honors were announced in September 2024, Medick singled out Schlittler’s progress and suggested the pitcher had another level to reach.
“He’s got an MLB fastball with a ton of pitchability,” Medick said in a Hudson Valley team release.
Hudson Valley also finished 2024 with a 3.25 staff ERA, the best in High-A baseball, and 19 shutouts. That performance offers a second measure of Medick’s work beyond one standout prospect. The assessment of Schlittler has aged remarkably well. Schlittler developed into a top-of-the-rotation starter in 2026, finishing with an ERA lower than any Yankees pitcher since Guidry. His later progress involved other coaches, teammates and his own work, but Medick coached him during a pivotal minor league season.
What one promotion says about Yankees’ pipeline
The timing creates an unusual contrast. Houston is rebuilding parts of its baseball operation after an 81-81 season and a wild-card sweep by the Chicago White Sox. The Astros also parted ways with general manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada, leaving significant leadership positions in flux.
New York, meanwhile, is coming off another postseason disappointment but can point to pitching development as a genuine organizational strength. Schlittler is the most visible example. The staff’s overall run prevention shows why losing a development instructor deserves attention even when no active major league roster spot changes hands.
There is also a distinction between losing a big league pitching coach and losing a farm-system developer. Matt Blake’s work with the major league staff remains central to the Yankees’ pitching program. Medick’s departure instead affects the organizational layer that prepares prospects before they reach Blake and the Bronx.
A rival’s decision to promote one of the Yankees’ instructors also shows that New York’s pitching-development staff is attracting attention elsewhere.
A director role comes with wider responsibility
Medick’s new title is significant. Rather than managing one affiliate’s pitchers through a season, a director of pitching typically helps guide development philosophy and coordination across several levels. Houston has not publicly detailed the specific boundaries of his new responsibilities.
The Astros retained major league pitching coach Josh Miller for 2027, so the reported hire should not be confused with a replacement on the big league coaching staff. It is a separate move within the broader pitching operation.
For the Yankees, the immediate question is how they replace Medick at Triple-A and preserve continuity for pitchers approaching the majors. Houston, for its part, is adding an instructor who worked directly with Schlittler before one of the strongest Yankees pitching seasons in decades.
The reported hire was circulating Tuesday, Oct. 20. As of Wednesday, the Yankees had not announced a successor for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitching position.
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Does the writer know that former NYY MilB pitching cisches are all over the MLB landscape? Boston has an ex NYY coach as their Director of Pitching. MLB loves to take the Yankees pitching guys now that their contracts end on October 31 like everyone else. For years, Yankees cisches deals ended on December 31.