Cam Schlittler’s Abrupt Rise to Cy Young Stardom Could Lead to Record Extension

On Wednesday night, Cam Schlittler is expected to be named the American League Cy Young Award winner in a sudden rise to stardom that couldn’t have been predicted a little over a year ago.

Cam Schlittler famously showcased his potential in the 2025 postseason when he pitched 14 1/3 innings and surrendered just two runs without issuing a single walk. He silenced the Red Sox across eight innings in the wild-card series before tossing some fuel onto the fire of the New York-Boston rivalry.

It was an impressive postseason debut for Schlittler, who made his first regular season start just months earlier in July. Then 24 years old, Schlittler wasn’t a highly rated prospect. He was a seventh-round pick in 2022 and wasn’t even listed among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects until ‘25, when MLB Pipeline ranked him as the organization’s No. 12 prospect.

But after receiving the call to the big leagues, Schlittler was completely unfazed. He made 14 starts from July until the end of the regular season and logged a 2.94 ERA with 84 strikeouts against 31 walks in 73 innings. His strong showing earned him a spot on the postseason roster, and the rest was history.

After his excellent run to end the 2025 campaign, fans had high hopes for the young starter in ‘26, and Schlittler managed to blow all expectations out of the water. In his first full season in the Yankees’ rotation, Schlittler made 33 starts and pitched to a sparkling 1.95 ERA with 239 strikeouts against 49 walks in 193 2/3 innings. He was tied for third in MLB in strikeouts, had the second-lowest ERA among qualified starters, was fourth in WHIP and tied for fifth with 20 quality starts. Schlittler racked up 7.0 bWAR, which ranked second among all pitchers in the sport, and is now on the precipice of winning the American League Cy Young award.

This is quite the landmark year for the award. Presumptive NL Cy Young winner Jacob Misiorowski is one of just six players in the modern era (since 1900) to match Schlittler’s marks in ERA, strikeouts and walks. The other five are Jacob deGrom (2018), Clayton Kershaw (2014), Pedro Martinez (2000), Walter Johnson (1913) and Christy Mathewson (1908).

Schlittler’s rise from mid-tier prospect to the AL’s best pitcher was meteoric, and he looked comfortable at the highest level each and every night he had the ball in his hand. Back in his college days at Northeastern, Schlittler’s fastball sat around 88–90 mph. Now, he’s averaging 98 mph on his four-seamer, 97.3 mph on his sinker and 94.6 mph on his cutter. That three-fastball mix has been his calling card for success in the majors, and he throws his varying fastballs 89% of the time, while occasionally mixing in a curveball. It’s a method that’s proven remarkably successful for the 25-year-old.

Cam Schlittler, 97mph Cutter, 99mph Two Seamer and 100mph Four Seam Fastball, Individual Pitches + Overlay pic.twitter.com/gc4y9ydHha
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 7, 2026

Schlittler set the Yankees’ franchise record for the most starts in a single season with one or fewer earned runs allowed. He achieved that feat 25 times, comfortably surpassing the previous record of 18 which was held jointly by Yankees icons Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford and Jack Chesbro. His 1.95 ERA was third-best by a qualified Yankee starter since the statistic started being tracked in 1912, and he’s just the fourth Yankees starter in that same span to record a sub-2.00 ERA across a full season. He held opponents to three or fewer runs in 30 of his 33 starts and surrendered just 16 home runs on the year. That’s ace material, and he has the makings of an all-time great in New York sports history.

Guidry’s dominant, Cy Young-winning campaign in 1978 is widely regarded as the greatest pitching season in Yankees history. That year, the legendary lefty had a 25–3 record and logged a 1.74 ERA with 248 strikeouts in 273 2/3 innings. Unsurprisingly, Schlittler pitched far fewer innings than Guidry in a modern era that emphasizes selling out for velocity over shorter stints on the mound. But he did strike out more batters per nine innings (11.1 vs. 8.2), surrendered fewer hits per nine (6.0 vs. 6.1) and he even set the franchise record for highest ERA+ in a single season at 215, narrowly better than the 208 ERA+ Guidry recorded during his historic season.

New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler — Schlittler’s remarkable 2026 campaign is one of the best in Yankees history. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

What would a Cam Schlittler contract extension look like?

The Yankees managed to develop Schlittler into one of MLB’s best pitchers and potentially one of the greatest to ever wear the pinstripes. And he’s still just 25. Now, they’ll need to cement his place as a franchise cornerstone with a long-term extension, buying out his arbitration years and some years of free agency in the process. But what would a long-term extension look like?

A great starting point for a comparison to a potential extension for Schlittler would be the contract the Reds gave Chase Burns in July. Burns, who was also one of the top arms in the majors this year after an abbreviated 2025 debut, received a seven-year, $105 million extension that will tie him to Cincinnati through the 2033 season and set a record for the largest contract given to a player with under four years of service time.

An extension for Schlittler, who now has a Cy Young win under his belt, would certainly top that, and could end up being in the range of $115 to $125 million over seven seasons. That would tie him to the Yankees through the ‘33 season, at which point he’d be in line to enter free agency at the age of 32. At present, Schlittler is under team control through the ‘31 season, so the Yankees would be buying out two years of free agency and all of his arbitration years.

Because of the precedent set by Tarik Skubal this past offseason, when he received a record-setting $32 million in arbitration from the Tigers, locking up Schlittler as soon as possible would be beneficial for the Yankees. A $115 million deal over seven seasons would come down to an average annual value of $16.4 million. Schlittler becomes eligible for arbitration in ‘29, at which point he could be eligible to earn close to or potentially more than Skubal’s $32 million, so New York could save a significant amount of money in the long term by getting a deal done now.

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