KANSAS CITY — Cam Schlittler walked off the mound at Kauffman Stadium with the same number glowing beside his name that he carried in. His 1.50 ERA did not move an inch. The Yankees right-hander had just thrown six innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 15-1 rout of the Royals on Tuesday night. Yet the most striking part of his evening had nothing to do with his fastball.
It had to do with the calendar. And it reached back further than almost anyone in the building had been alive.
Schlittler is in the middle of his first full season in the majors. He does not pitch like it. The 25-year-old carries himself like a 10-year veteran. He pounds the zone. He misses bats. He rarely flinches. Tuesday was a rare night when his stuff was not razor sharp, and it did not matter at all to the Yankees.
“Not the best,” Schlittler said, per the New York Post. “My stuff wasn’t as sharp, but I was able to put the team in position to win. That’s all you can ask for.”
He went six innings and gave up one run on four hits. He struck out six. He did not walk a single batter. Bobby Witt Jr. tagged him for a solo homer in the third. That was the only blemish. The Yankees staked him to a 4-0 lead before he ever threw a pitch, so the math was never close.
What Schlittler does not yet realize is how rare his season has become.
A milestone the Yankees have not touched since 1914
Here is the milestone. Through his first 12 Yankees starts of 2026, Schlittler owns a 1.50 ERA. That mark is the second-lowest by any Yankees pitcher through 12 starts since earned runs became an official stat in 1913. Only Ray Caldwell sits ahead of him. Caldwell posted a 1.46 ERA back in 1914. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs first flagged the feat.
So this is the best Yankees start to a season in 112 years.
Think about who has worn the pinstripes in that span. Lefty Gomez. Whitey Ford. Ron Guidry. Andy Pettitte. Roger Clemens. None of them opened a year with the kind of stinginess Schlittler is showing right now. The Yankees have produced 27 World Series titles and a parade of Hall of Fame arms. A Yankees pitcher in his second big-league season just topped almost all of them.
“Cam Schlittler has a 1.50 ERA,” Langs wrote on X. “That’s the second-lowest by a Yankee in his first 12 starts of a season since ER official (1913), behind only: 1914 Ray Caldwell: 1.46 (Caldwell did have relief apps between).”
The deeper number may be even more stunning. Across his first 25 career regular-season starts, Schlittler holds a 2.27 ERA. Langs noted that is the lowest mark by any Yankees pitcher through 25 career games since 1913. That span covers more than a century of Yankees baseball. It includes every legend the team has ever sent to the hill.
The numbers fueling Schlittler’s Cy Young surge
The body of work backs the headline numbers. Schlittler has not allowed more than two earned runs in a start since April 12. No opponent has scored more than three total runs against him all year. He owns at least four strikeouts in every outing this season. He has six or more in three straight. His strikeout-to-walk ratio now sits at a video-game 81-to-13.
He leads the entire American League in ERA at 1.50. He also tops the league in opponents’ batting average and WHIP. ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle named him the front-runner for the 2026 AL Cy Young Award. The Yankees right-hander currently holds the best Cy Young betting odds of any pitcher in the league, per ESPN’s awards tracker.
His rise reads like fiction. A year ago he was a name only deep prospect lists knew. The Yankees took him in the seventh round of the 2022 draft out of Northeastern. He made his Yankees debut on July 9, 2025. Then he buried the Red Sox with eight shutout innings and 12 strikeouts in Game 3 of last year’s Wild Card Series.
What Boone sees in his young Yankees ace
Yankees manager Aaron Boone has watched the climb up close. Before Tuesday’s game, Boone broke down what makes his young ace tick.
“He definitely wants the ball,” Boone said, per the New York Post. “He expects to not only pitch well, but dominate. He has that mindset. Some people have that mindset but don’t have the confidence to go with it. He certainly does.”
Boone also pointed to the temperament behind the stuff. The mix is what sets Schlittler apart in the manager’s eyes.
“I like his competitiveness,” Boone said. “He has that ‘I’m going to rip your heart out’ competitor thing to him, but he’s also even-keeled and laid-back. He strikes a good balance.”
Tuesday’s outing was not vintage Schlittler. The plan was to keep him short anyway. He had logged longer outings in his previous two starts.
“You look up and it’s six innings of one-run baseball,” Boone said. “After a couple of longer outings, we were probably going shorter with him tonight. So, to have that type of lead, having a less strenuous outing was good.”
Boone pulled the Yankees ace after just 77 pitches. With Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon working back into the rotation, the Yankees have every reason to protect their breakout star. Doolittle has flagged the one real question hanging over the season. Schlittler threw 164 innings last year. He is on pace to clear 200 this year, and that total comes before October.
For now, the Yankees own a young arm doing something the franchise has not seen in well over a century. The pinstripes have housed plenty of aces. None of them ever started a Yankees season quite like this.
What do you think? Will he own the Cy Young trophy this season?
