BRONX, N.Y. — Last time a Yankees pitcher won the AL MVP award was Spud Chandler. It was in 1943.
Eighty three years later, Cam Schlittler looks a potential candidate to join him.
The Yankees right-hander held the Colorado Rockies to one run on three hits over seven innings Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, striking out 10 without a walk in a 5-3 victory. Schlittler earned his 13th win and a quote from Aaron Judge that just made every baseball fan amazed.
The outing lowered Schlittler’s ERA to 2.01 through 30 starts and pushed him to 220 strikeouts in 178 2/3 innings. It also gave the Yankees their 34th consecutive winning season and strengthened a Cy Young case that has become increasingly difficult to challenge.
On Sept. 9, DraftKings had Schlittler at minus-1200 in the American League Cy Young market, with Toronto’s Dylan Cease at plus-700. Current Sept. 11 books still show Schlittler as an overwhelming favorite, although the exact prices vary by sportsbook. Cease still owns the better strikeout total and strikeout rate, but Schlittler leads him in ERA, innings, WHIP, walks and Baseball-Reference WAR.
That would already make Schlittler’s second full month of September remarkable enough. The more unusual development is that the same résumé is beginning to force a second awards question.
Schlittler is no longer only building a case to be the best pitcher in the American League. By at least one major value metric, he has been the most valuable player in the league, regardless of position.
One WAR leaderboard changes awards conversation
As of Sept. 11, Baseball-Reference lists Schlittler at 6.7 WAR through games completed Sept. 10, the highest total of any American League player. Bobby Witt Jr. is next at 6.6, followed by Detroit rookie Kevin McGonigle at 6.1 and Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez at 5.9. Cease is fifth at 5.8.
The distinction matters because MVP voting is not restricted to position players. Pitchers face a much higher practical bar because they already have the Cy Young Award, but they remain eligible, and Schlittler’s value has become difficult to separate from the league’s best everyday players.
FanGraphs-based tracking has Schlittler at 5.7 fWAR as of Sept. 11, third among major league pitchers, behind Jacob Misiorowski and Cristopher Sánchez. That number has already moved past Gerrit Cole’s 5.3 fWAR from his 2023 Cy Young season. The comparison needs context: Cole finished 2023 with 7.4 Baseball-Reference WAR, so Schlittler has not surpassed that season by every version of WAR.
Still, the fWAR comparison shows how quickly Schlittler has moved beyond a normal breakout. The Yankees are getting a season that already compares favorably with the last Cy Young campaign produced in the Bronx.
Schlittler has separated from Cease where it matters most
Cease remains the only realistic threat in the Cy Young race. As of Sept. 11, the Toronto ace is 10-5 with a 2.40 ERA, 227 strikeouts and a 1.041 WHIP across 161 1/3 innings. His 35.2% strikeout rate is better than Schlittler’s 31.4%.
The Yankees’ advantage with Schlittler is breadth. As of Sept. 11, he is 13-6 with a 2.01 ERA, a 0.918 WHIP, 220 strikeouts and only 42 walks in 178 2/3 innings. His 6.0% walk rate is dramatically lower than Cease’s 10.4%, and he has logged 17 1/3 more innings.
The Yankees ace also owns a 209 ERA+, compared with Cease’s 184, according to Baseball-Reference. Schlittler’s 2.61 FIP and .189 opponents’ average add more context to a season in which he has prevented runs more efficiently while carrying a heavier workload.
Aaron Boone did not hedge when asked to describe what Schlittler has meant to the Yankees rotation.
“He’s been the best pitcher in the league,” Boone said. “When you have that going all year at the top of your rotation, that’s massive. And that’s what he’s been.”
AL Cy Young comparison through Sept. 11
| Category | Cam Schlittler | Dylan Cease |
| G | 30 | 27 |
| GS | 30 | 27 |
| W-L | 13-6 | 10-5 |
| ERA | 2.01 | 2.40 |
| ERA+ | 209 | 184 |
| IP | 178.2 | 161.1 |
| WHIP | 0.918 | 1.041 |
| SO | 220 | 227 |
| BB | 42 | 67 |
| K% | 31.4% | 35.2% |
| BB% | 6.0% | 10.4% |
| bWAR | 6.7 | 5.8 |
| fWAR | 5.7 | 5.5 |
Stats are current as of Sept. 11, 2026, through games completed Sept. 10. bWAR and ERA+ are from Baseball-Reference; counting stats were cross-checked against MLB, and fWAR was cross-checked against FanGraphs-based leaderboards.
Two Yankees records show how unusual consistency has become
For the Yankees, the volume of dominant starts adds another layer to the MVP argument.
MLB credits Schlittler with 20 starts allowing one total run or fewer, the most in the majors this season and a Yankees franchise record. ESPN’s earned-run version of the statistic is even more striking: 22 starts allowing zero or one earned run, breaking the club mark associated with Ron Guidry’s 1978 Cy Young season.
His 2.01 ERA is also the fourth-lowest by a Yankees pitcher through his first 30 starts of a season since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913. Only Spud Chandler in 1943, Guidry in 1978 and Stan Bahnsen in 1968 rank ahead on MLB’s list.
Schlittler has done it while handling the largest workload of his career. He threw 164 innings across the majors, minors and postseason in 2025. He is already at 178 2/3 regular-season innings this year with the Yankees still fighting for the AL East.
That workload makes his late-season trend more notable. After walking 16 batters over a five-start stretch in August, Schlittler has responded with consecutive walk-free starts and 19 strikeouts.
MVP remains a long shot, but not theoretical
The betting market still treats an MVP victory as remote. Yordan Alvarez remains the overwhelming American League favorite, while Sept. 11 markets price Schlittler roughly from 80-1 to 125-1 depending on the sportsbook. That is a vastly different position from his Cy Young status.
Alvarez’s offensive season gives voters an obvious position-player choice, while Junior Caminero is the clear No. 2 betting option and Witt remains an elite all-around alternative. History also works against Schlittler. Justin Verlander in 2011 is the most recent American League pitcher to win both the MVP and Cy Young awards in the same season.
But the argument has moved beyond novelty. Schlittler leads the AL in Baseball-Reference WAR, leads the league in ERA, ranks near the top in innings and strikeouts, and has anchored a Yankees club that spent three months without Aaron Judge.
Schlittler is officially lined up to face the Mets on Sunday, Sept. 13, and is projected to face Arizona on Sept. 19, giving him at least two more high-profile chances to add to the résumé.
Schlittler has tried to keep the awards race secondary to the Yankees’ postseason push, even while acknowledging the opportunity in front of him.
“But I try to push that to the side and I don’t worry about it on a daily basis,” Schlittler said. “If I go out there every five days and compete, there’s no reason I don’t have an opportunity to win it.”
The Cy Young race now looks like his to lose. The MVP race is a far steeper climb. The fact that Schlittler has made it a legitimate September discussion at all may say even more about the season the Yankees’ 25-year-old ace has produced.
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