Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler leads, as of Wednesday, the American League in fWAR among qualified pitchers with 4.9. His 2.19 ERA is also the best in the junior circuit and third in the majors behind Jacob Misiorowski and Chris Sale.
Statistically, Schlittler’s 2026 season has been nothing short of amazing. In fact, he is well on his way to posting the best pitching season in recent franchise history, at least in the last ten years.
That’s right: he is already starting to flirt with Gerrit Cole’s
2021 and 2023 campaigns, as well as with Luis Severino’s 2017 and 2018 outputs. Check out the best Yankee pitching seasons by fWAR of the last decade:
The rate stats, such as ERA and the always reliable FIP, say that Schlittler definitely belongs in the conversation of best Yankees pitchers in the last decade. We realize that it might still be a bit premature to say that, so let’s just say his 2026 output belongs in the organization’s elite from the 2017 campaign to the current one.
Schlittler can do it all on the mound: he throws multiple types of fastballs and mixes in breaking balls; he continually flirts with triple digit velocity; he can locate all of his pitches, and he misses bats with most of them on a consistent basis. Oh, and he has the mentality of a bulldog and isn’t afraid to compete and even talk some trash, because he knows he can back it all up where it counts: on the mound.
Schlittler has, give or take, seven starts left in the regular season. For the sake of being conservative, let’s just say he has six left. He has racked up, on average, 0.19 fWAR per start this year. That would put him on a 6.0-fWAR pace, which would allow him to leapfrog Luis Severino’s brilliant 2017 campaign as the best in Yankees’ recent history.
Since we’re at it, let’s dive deep and examine how Schlittler’s current stats stack up against some of the best seasons in franchise history. Granted, Yankee history is chock-full of relevant position players and not that many pitchers, but there are still some incredible performances to discuss.
These are the best pitching seasons on the Bombers:
The best year by a Yankees pitcher, according to fWAR, belongs to the Louisiana Lightning. Guidry’s brilliant 1978 had him flirting with the 10-fWAR threshold, an amazing achievement for pitchers. There have been just 20 such seasons in the history of Major League Baseball, dating back to 1871, and only one in the new millennium: Randy Johnson in 2001 (10.4).
Schlittler won’t match Guidry’s 1978 season this year, and it’s highly unlikely he cracks the top five unless he goes bananas in his remaining starts. However, the fact that he is already in the conversation in his first year as a full-time starter is impressive, to say the least.
Perhaps as we get closer to his prime, we might see Schlittler crack the top five in franchise history when it comes to individual seasons. He is off to a fantastic start in his career and, if fate allows him to enjoy good health, seems destined for greatness.
