The Yankees’ rotation will have some injuries to start the year with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon on the IL for Opening Day most likely, but they’re expected to return before the All-Star Break.
When they do, they’ll join a rotation that had Max Fried as their leader in WAR, ERA, and FIP in 2025, but all three of those pitchers will have a fourth challenger for the title of staff ace.
Cam Schlittler became a rookie sensation after an incredible regular season that preceeded an incredible postseason debut, and he has the ceiling to improve dramatically from that 2025 campaign.
Sporting an arsenal headlined by a dominant four-seam fastball, Schlittler’s elite pitch mix and improving command could gel into an incredible 2026 campaign.
He might be the youngest pitcher in the Yankees’ rotation, but Schlittler has a chance to establish himself as their ace next year.
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How Cam Schlittler Could Take Another Massive Leap With the Yankees
Cam Schlittler tossed over 150 innings in 2025, soaring past his previous career-high in innings pitched by over 20 innings pitched.
His velocity didn’t just hold well as the season went on, Schlittler was throwing harder and harder with each promotion, seeing another MPH spike in October.
The right-hander came up through the organization as more of a finnesse pitcher who relied on breaking balls to mask his underwhelming fastball, but in the big leagues the script flipped as he filled the zone with high-octane heat.
We have ways to quantify the nastiness of a pitcher’s repertoire, and that’s through the metric Stuff+, which can be found on FanGraphs.
It takes into account the velocity, movement, release points, and other in-depth variables to determine pitch quality, and Cam Schlittler was seventh among starters (min. 60 IP) with a 114 Stuff+.
He was ahead of pitchers such as Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom, and just two points behind Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet, two of the best power pitchers in the sport.
Where Cam Schlittler has continued to make strides as a pitcher beyond just throwing harder is with expanding his repertoire, as in 2024 the right-hander was effectively a three-pitch starter.
He had a four-seamer, sweeper, and curveball with a not-so-great gyro slider that he would ditch for a cutter in 2025, but in th big leagues we’ve seen him continue to mess around with his repertoire.
Schlittler would remove his sweeper from the equation in exchange for a sinker and a second cutter shape that served as more of a slider, which gives him five different pitches to use in any start.
When he first reached the big leagues, Cam Schlittler was too reliant on his four-seamer and couldn’t trust his secondaries, but by the time October rolled around he was mixing up his sequences way more.
Expanding what he can throw outside of the four-seamer could make Schlittler even an even bigger nightmare for hitters, and it wouldn’t require an overhauling of his mix.
The addition of a reliable offspeed pitch such as a changeup or splitter would be difficult, but its something he’ll spend time this winter on honing.
It’ll help against lefties, and it’s another look against righties that would work well with his high-velocity fastball with solid vertical movement.
With a four-seamer, sinker, two cutters curveball, and offspeed pitch, that would give him six pitches in his mix that he uses over 5% of the time.
The only starters who averaged 97 MPH or harder on their fastball and threw six pitches or more over 5% of the time were Paul Skenes and Spencer Schwellenbach in 2025 (min. 60 IP).
Schwellenbach has a 3.23 ERA and 3.27 FIP in two MLB seasons while Paul Skenes has never had an ERA at 2.00 or greater in his first two big league seasons.
The Yankees have some big names on their rotation with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodon who could all end up putting up a sub-3.50 ERA in 2025.
Despite that, Cam Schlittler could end up being the best of the group and establish himself as the team’s next homegrown ace, replacing the title that Gerrit Cole has held since 2020.