Cam Schlittler made a big leap last week as he went from Double-A to Triple-A, as the Yankees promoted the right-hander following an impressive start to his 2025 season.
It technically wasn’t his debut with the Scranton RailRiders, as Schlittler made a spot start with them last season but was woefully underprepared for the outing.
This was his true debut; seasoned by Eastern League hitters at the Double-A level, he would be tasked with facing a St. Paul lineup that featured multiple former big leaguers.
Four of the Saints’ nine starting hitters had played in the big leagues during the 2024 season, and yet Schlittler delivered five innings of one-run baseball, striking out eight batters while walking three.
With a strong debut under his belt, Cam Schlittler flashed the upside that the Yankees have seen in him since he was drafted out of Northeastern University, as he’s right on the doorstep of making his big-league debut.
Brilliant Start From Cam Schlittler Brings Him Closer to Yankees’ Debut
Pitching on the road against the St. Paul Saints, Cam Schlittler brought his A-game as the right-hander was sitting 96.3 MPH on his fastball and touched 98 MPH multiple times.
Schlittler’s fastball has good velocity but doesn’t have elite vertical movement, instead relying on the abnormal amount of cut it generates for a fastball to be an effective swing-and-miss pitch.
The perceived velocity of this pitch is 96.7 MPH due to the extension he generates as a tall right-hander, and if Schlittler can continue locating his heater at the top of the zone it can be an effective out pitch for him or set up his secondaries.
While his fastball lit up the radar gun, it was his new cutter that got the most use last night, as he used it 44.7% of the time as a way to get called strikes or soft contact.
His cutter sits at 91.4 MPH with 92.0 MPH of perceived velocity, generating 6.8 inches of sweep with 4.8 inches of Induced Vertical Break.
Statcast tags this pitch as a slider because it generates more drop and sweep than a normal cutter, but he throws it about two MPH harder than the average MLB cutter.
All of that is to say that it has more movement than one would expect for a pitch thrown that hard, which is why batters had a mere .107 wOBA against it last night.
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His two best pitches have always been his sweeper and curveball, as the curveball generates a ridiculous amount of movement both vertically and laterally.
This pitch is his go-to strikeout weapon against left-handed batters, and with how well he spins the baseball and how high he releases the ball, hitters find themselves swinging over it constantly.
The most unique pitch in his repertoire is probably his sweeper, as it gets an abnormal amount of ride, as there are only two pitchers who have thrown at least 100 sweepers since 2023 that have one with at least 9 inches of IVB.
Abnormality in a pitch is a good thing; hitters are likely not used to seeing sweepers that have as much ride as Schlittler’s, and he also throws his harder than most pitchers throw that pitch.
Cam Schlittler shined his Triple-A debut with the @swbrailriders
5 IP | 2 H | 1 ER | 3 BB | 8 SO
Fastball was up to 98.7 and sat around 96 MPH. Had a a 31% Whiff%. pic.twitter.com/w5rP9cKZ1b
— Ryan Garcia (@RyanGarciaESM) June 8, 2025
All four of his pitches are average or above-average, and he can use at least three of them successfully against either a righty or lefty.
The addition of his new cutter has made him one of the best pitching prospects in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues, and if his repertoire translates sooner than expected to the Triple-A level we could see him make his debut this season.
I anticipate a longer adjustment period at this level than he had at Double-A or High-A due to the baseballs at the Triple-A level being similar to the Major League ones, generating less ride than the ones he used in Somerset.
That being said, his stuff looked remarkable. The concerns I had about the stuff taking time to translate have subsided for now, and while I expect the fastball velocity to sit closer to 95 MPH, it wouldn’t shock me if this uptick was real.
In just one season he’s made massive improvements to his repertoire; the fastball averaged just 12.6 inches of ride last year, the curveball had less vertical and horizontal movement, and he didn’t have the deadly cutter he has now.
When he pitched in the with the Yankees’ Single-A affiliate in Tampa back in 2023, his fastball sat at 90 MPH with just 8.5 inches of IVB.
The improvements he’s made year over year with his fastball are unprecedented, and with the secondaries getting that much better, I’m starting to see a pitcher who can be a middle-of-the-rotation arm for the Yankees.
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