WASHINGTON, D.C. — The take arrived as a hypothetical, floated on a Yankees broadcast with the calm of a man just filling a quiet stretch. What if the club sat its best pitcher for a July series, purely to keep a rival from getting a good look at him?
It was the kind of what-if that sounds clever for a second and then falls apart the moment you check the calendar. The Yankees are in second place. The trade deadline has not passed. October is nearly three months away.
Cam Schlittler, the pitcher at the center of the thought experiment, has been the steadiest arm in the Bronx all season. The notion of hiding him from anyone, in the middle of a playoff race, struck a nerve the instant it hit the air.
Within hours, the reaction was loud, and most of it was not kind.
The question that started it
The moment came on YES Network during the Yankees’ 5-3 win over the Nationals. Broadcaster Michael Kay talked through the Yankees’ schedule coming out of the All-Star break. New York opens the second half against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions.
Kay raised the possibility of holding Schlittler back from that series and instead lining him up later, so the Dodgers would not see him in case the two teams met again in the fall. He put the premise to former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who now works as an analyst on the network.
“Does a manager think that far ahead?” Kay asked.
Girardi did not entertain it for long.
Girardi’s flat rejection
The former skipper answered in a single word before explaining why the whole premise did not hold up. His point was simple. A team cannot plan around a World Series it has not reached in the middle of July.
“No,” Girardi said, before adding, “it’s too far away, you gotta get there.”
Girardi did offer a practical reason the Yankees might shuffle Schlittler’s turn, and it had nothing to do with hiding him. Coming off the break, he figured the club would want to buy the right-hander a bit more rest.
“So maybe he throws Sunday,” Girardi said.
He tied that to Schlittler’s workload rather than to any long-range scheme. The larger point, Girardi stressed, was that planning for a championship round in July puts the cart well ahead of the horse.
“I think it’s way too soon to think about that,” Girardi said.
Why the fan base pounced
The blowback online was swift and heavily one-sided. Many Yankees fans called the premise a symptom of overthinking a team that has not clinched anything, pointing out that the club sits in second place and has a deadline and a division race to navigate first.
Others argued the mechanics of the idea made no sense. Schlittler is on track to make many more starts before October, they noted, and a contender like the Dodgers would hardly be thrown off by one skipped look at a pitcher they could scout a dozen other ways.
A smaller group defended the question as fair. Some viewers said there is a real, if minor, logic to limiting how often a future postseason opponent sees a young arm. Others suggested Kay was simply generating conversation or setting up Girardi to offer a manager’s view on a close game.
That split captured the strange life of a throwaway broadcast moment. What one side saw as harmless air-filling, another treated as evidence of a network voice drifting from the reality on the field.
@Christian_NYYST noted, “It’s July 12 and the Yankees are in second place, so the answer is no; and separately, “It’s a one-run game. Get Girardi’s perspective on that.”
@Jeff165304 (Suzie Q) argued “It’s a legitimate question, to potentially not expose him to the Dodgers so they’re not as familiar with him when the playoffs come around. But sure let’s hate on Michael Kay because it’s the cool kids thing to do. You guys all must be fun at parties 🤣”
@Moot22514778 said, “Not dumb unless Schlittler plays “the Greg Maddux game” of pacing himself against a future opponent.”
@btrnobody tweeted, “Kay was likely just generating discussion and teeing up Girardi for a manager’s perspective.”
@JerseyGeneral34. offered a middle read, , suggesting the host was mostly trying to spark discussion and set up the former Yankees manager for a bench perspective, “ Maybe he was just filling airtime.”
@HomelessNeenja pushed back on the World Series framing entirely, “World Series? These games all matter, pointing to what happened with Toronto last year.”
@Puszkarczu72605 sarcastically notes Schlittler will make 10-12 more starts and the Dodgers aren’t worried about one look, “LOL, YES, dumb question, like advanced scouting and they are not gonna see him make 10-12 more starts. Lol. Yes, dumb question. WTF? Not like the Dodgers are even worried about it.”
@mikedorb1 kept it short, questioning why the topic came up at all and asking, “Why would Kay even ask Girardi that?”
@Ghostofyankees1 was more scathing, “That’s moronic. Stupid on multiple levels. Kay and Boone should open up an learing center.”
What it means for Schlittler and the Yankees
Lost in the noise was the pitcher himself. Schlittler is 9-5 with an American League-leading 2.05 ERA, 137 strikeouts and a 0.94 WHIP across 118 2/3 innings in his second big league season.
His importance to a banged-up rotation is the real reason his schedule matters. ESPN projects Schlittler to throw about 201 innings this year after he logged 191 last season, a workload the Yankees are monitoring closely.
That is why the only schedule question that carries weight is a matter of rest, not secrecy. Girardi’s suggestion that Schlittler could slide to Sunday against the Dodgers was about protecting an arm climbing to a career high, not shielding him from advance scouts.
The Yankees have already made one workload call this week. Schlittler will not pitch in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia, choosing to stay on his normal routine with the second half in mind.
He is instead lined up to open the second half at home against the Dodgers. The Yankees enter the break at 54-42, second in the AL East and three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays.
For now, the only people planning around a Yankees-Dodgers World Series are the ones with a microphone and airtime to fill. The team, and its young ace, still have a first-place race to chase before any of that talk means anything.
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