Over the last week or so, the Yankees have been able to watch one of their top pitching prospects quickly ascend to a potential pitcher of the future. Cam Schlittler entered the 2025 season as the Yankees’ second ranked prospect by FanGraphs, and the 48th in baseball. After making the first start of his major league career on July 9th, he has provided a solid boost to the Yankees starting rotation. Over his last few starts, however, Schlittler has possibly entrenched himself right in the heart of it for
the final stretch of this season and beyond.
Two weeks ago, the 24-year-old Schlittler turned in what was a career-best start at home against the Twins. Across his five innings, he allowed just one earned run on two hits while fanning six batters. He has now followed up that performance with a pair of starts that were debatably even better. Schlittler is undoubtedly a talented pitcher, and this run of starts should inspire some legitimate confidence in his future.
Schlittler’s following start in Tampa was an early career highlight. The hard-throwing right-hander worked his way though 6.2 innings against the Rays, allowing just one hit and striking out eight. The rookie was also, notably, perfect through six full innings in that game, adding a level of impressiveness on to what was the best outing of his young career.
Not only was it a high water mark in terms of results, it also looked like a much more comfortable and successful process for Schlittler as well. As opposed to his initial appearances with the big club, this start against the Rays saw him throwing the curveball with far more frequency and effectiveness. The 19 percent use on the breaker was a season high for Schlittler, and clearly it played a part in his gem of a start.
Beyond just an elevated usage rate, the combination of Schlittler’s his high-velocity four-seamer and the curve worked wonders in tandem with one another. He effectively kept his heater up in the zone, with his misses staying in that direction as well, while keeping that breaking ball down and often out of the zone.
The high fastball low curveball combination is unsurprisingly one that plays quite well when it’s executed. With a fastball as good as Schlittler’s, and an emerging curveball that he seems to be growing more comfortable with, the combination is one that could take the young righty quite a ways. It allowed him to tally 19 swings and misses against the Rays, including 11 on his fastball, and is helping to show the real potential of their prized prospect.
Monday against the Nationals, Schlittler continued his dominant run with six shutout innings in what was yet another convincing outing for the 24-year-old. The pitch mix that served him so well during his six-plus nearly perfect innings in Tampa continued to do so against Washington. Although it was spotted a bit more with the four hits and three walks surrendered, he still induced 13 whiffs and mixed the heater and the curve in a way that still supported him on the way to six shutout frames.
As he continues to find his footing, he returned to the curveball at a similar rate as he did in his previous outing, but also leaned a bit more on his cutter as well. For the most part, he spotted it well, and the Yankees love developing a cut fastball, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see that continue to have a significant presence going forward. Even while Schlittler gets things figured out at the big league level, his start against the Nats did nothing but bolster confidence in him.
Beyond all of this, Schlittler is simply looking the part of a dominant pitcher. When recent Yankees squads have often lacked pitching depth (as every team does at some point) a young, homegrown pitching prospect who lives up to potential could provide a major boost to this 2025 team and beyond.
Cam Schlittler is clearly talented, boasting a fastball that sits in the 95th percentile in terms of velocity, and a cutter and curveball to go along with it, the latter of which he’s mixing in much more effectively of late and to great success. There will be bumps in the road as hitters adjust and the inevitable lows come in tandem with the highs, but Schlittler’s last few weeks should inspire plenty of confidence for the Yankees in their young starter.
