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Cam Schlittler’s next start will be the biggest of his career when he takes the mound against the Red Sox in the Wild Card round.
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Schlittler is in the spotlight for an impressive first full season that ended with him going 14-6 with an AL-best 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts. The final two numbers are among the top five in any Yankee season, which is impressive considering he arrived as an injury replacement for Clarke Schmidt shortly before last year’s All-Star break.
Plenty of space in the coming days will be devoted to his connections to Massachusetts, given that he is a native of the Boston area and an alum of Northeastern, which is a 10-minute walk from Fenway Park. Regardless of what happens in Boston, Yankees fans shouldn’t ignore the historical context of Schittler’s season.
Where does Schlittler’s season rank in Yankees’ history?
Schlittler turned 25 on Feb. 5, and his 14 wins are among the better totals in Yankees history for anyone that age or younger. Still, that’s a far cry from the highest all-time for the Yankees, which belongs to Lefty Gomez, who won 26 games in 1934, two seasons after winning 24 games in his age-23 season.
If you look at strikeouts, it’s a different story. Schlittler’s 239 is the most among any Yankee age 25 or younger. Including Schlittler, only four Yankees’ pitchers have had at least 200 strikeouts at age 25, including Luis Severino’s impressive 2017 and 2018 seasons, Al Downing in 1964, and Bob Turley in 1955.
Overall, Schlittler’s 239 strikeouts occurred in 193 2/3 innings, and he faced 761 hitters. That ties him for the fourth-most in Yankees history with fellow Massachusetts native Jack Chesbro, who won 41 games in 1904, pitched 454 2/3 innings, and faced 1,720 in an era long before anyone monitored pitch counts or innings.
Schlittler’s 1.95 ERA is also the third-best among a Yankee in a single season for qualified starting pitchers.
Ron Guidry had a 1.74 ERA in his 25-3 season of 1978, and Spud Chandler finished at 1.64 in a 20-4 season in 1943.
“I think any season anybody does that, it’s impressive, but for his first full season in the big leagues, to be able to handle it, it’s a big workload for him,” catcher Austin Wells said Thursday. “To pass all the innings he’s ever thrown in his career so still being able to do it, still being able to go out there and give us length, it’s impressive.”
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Where does Schlittler’s season rank in MLB history?
The record for strikeouts by someone age-25 or younger will never be passed, given how teams monitor innings and pitches.
The record belongs to Nolan Ryan, who struck out 329 over 284 innings for the 1972 California Angels, when he broke the mark of 325 set by Sam McDowell with Cleveland in his age-22 season in 1965
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Schlittler’s 239 strikeouts are in the top-60 and the same amount as Scott Kazmir in 2007 for the Rays and Oliver Perez in 2004 for the Padres, long before the left-hander turned into a journeyman reliever.
In terms of recency, Schlittler had the fifth-most strikeouts of anyone age-25 or younger since 2015. Spencer Strider had 281 as a 24-year-old for Atlanta in 2023 when he won 20 games, Shane Bieber had 259 in 2019 as a 24-year-old, and Jacob Misiorowski finished with 252 this year, one behind Jose Fernandez’s total in 2016, which was sadly cut short in a boating accident.
Looking at the earned run average, Schlittler’s was the third-best of the Statcast era since 2015. Misiorowski finished this season at 1.80, and Blake Snell was at 1.89 in his 21-win season in 2018 for the Rays.
Schlittler’s ERA was two points lower than Paul Skenes’ 2025 campaign, which was plagued by poor support from the Pirates.
In the wild-card era since 1995, Schlittler is tied for 14th, and it is unlikely he was going to approach the record of 305 set by Pedro Martinez in his final season with Montreal in 1997.
Schlittler’s ERA is the fifth-best by anyone age-25 or younger in the wild-card era. Until Misiorowski lowered his ERA to 1.80 in the regular-season finale, the mark was Clayton Kershaw’s 1.83 ERA in 2013 when the Dodgers began their streak of 14 straight postseason appearances.
Even if Schlittler did not start Game 1 nod, Yankees have other good alternatives
When a team finishes with a 3.30 ERA from starting pitchers, it’s highly likely there are others capable of opening a playoff series.
The Yankees headed into last year’s postseason with a 3.61 ERA from their rotation, which ranked fourth in the majors. This year, they got even better with a major league-leading 3.30 ERA, the Yankees’ best in the wild-card era, and it is more impressive considering Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, and Gerrit Cole had a combined five stints on the injured list.
The Yankees rarely had a bad start this season, which allowed them to win 93 times in a year when Aaron Judge played 66 games, and Schlittler’s dominance is not only historical but also ace-like, and his next chapter starts against the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series.
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This story was originally published September 28, 2026 at 4:07 AM.