Cam Schlittler takes the mound tonight for the New York Yankees with a chance to keep building on one of baseball’s biggest breakout stories.
The Yankees right-hander will make his 12th start of the season against the Kansas City Royals, looking to strengthen his American League Cy Young case.
Entering his start on Tuesday, Schlittler is the current betting favorite to win the award across all major betting platforms. And it's for good reason.
Schlittler is 6-2 this season with a league-leading 1.50 ERA over 66 innings. He has also struck out 75 batters while posting an AL-best 0.86 WHIP.
The flame-throwing right-hander is off to one of the best starts in recent baseball history. The competition around Schlittler is also getting thinner by the day, with injuries and a lack of dominance from other starters across the league.
It's only May, and there is plenty of season left. But Schlittler's case to win his first Cy Young is growing stronger by the day.
Why the AL Cy Young Award Is Cam Schlittler’s to Lose
A big reason why Schlittler’s path to the Cy Young Award is so open is due to the mounting injuries around the league.
The preseason favorites and top contenders, including Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Max Fried and Dylan Cease, have all been lost to injuries. That has left Schlittler with a clear opening in the American League race.
Schlittler’s closest pursuers right now are Jacob deGrom, Jose Soriano, Shane McClanahan and Gavin Williams. All four starters are having strong seasons, but none have matched Schlittler’s level of dominance.
The two other starters who can at least make a case are Nick Martinez and Davis Martin.
Martinez, 35, owns a 1.51 ERA with the Tampa Bay Rays, putting him just behind Schlittler. However, he has never sustained this level of dominance in his nine-year career.
Martin has a 2.04 ERA for the Chicago White Sox. But he had never posted a season ERA under 4.00 before this year.
Schlittler, since making his debut last July, has been nothing short of sensational. He has taken the baseball world by storm and given the Yankees another dominant force in a star-studded rotation.
But it’s the way Schlittler dominates that makes him so different from other starting pitchers.
His three primary pitches are all versions of a fastball: a four-seamer, cutter and sinker. He has thrown those three pitches 91% of the time this season.
Usually, a pitcher without several offspeed or breaking pitches would start to struggle. But that has not been the case for Schlittler, at least not yet.
In fairness, Schlittler is still only a second-year player. He has also never handled a full major league workload. Many starters begin to falter in the second half when the innings pile up.
But the way Schlittler has dominated has given many confidence that this is no fluke.
He will look to keep building his Cy Young case tonight against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET.
