Cam Schlittler's Unanimous Cy Young Came in a Season Cole, Fried and Rodon Spent Long Stretches Away

Cam Schlittler won the American League Cy Young Award unanimously on November 11, 2026, taking all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America for a season in which the Yankees right-hander went 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA. He finished with 210 points, ahead of Toronto's Dylan Cease with 110 and Cleveland's Parker Messick with 84, and he won it in a year when Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon all spent extended stretches away from the Yankees rotation, according to ESPN.

The award is New York's news because it belongs to the Bronx, and on November 12, 2026, the morning after the vote, it is the Yankees' first Cy Young since Cole's in 2023. Schlittler is the seventh Yankees pitcher to win the Cy Young, after Bob Turley in 1958, Whitey Ford in 1961, Sparky Lyle in 1977, Ron Guidry in 1978, Roger Clemens in 2001 and Cole in 2023, the BBWAA said in its announcement. He is the third Yankee to win it unanimously, joining Cole and Guidry, and ESPN reported that only he, Guidry and Ford of the seven came up through the Yankees' own system.

What the Cy Young vote rewarded

The ballots were cast before the postseason, so the vote is a verdict on the regular season alone. By the numbers in MLB's official statistics, Schlittler made 33 starts and threw 193 2/3 innings, struck out 239 batters and walked 49, and held opponents to a .185 batting average with a 0.92 WHIP. ESPN reported that he allowed one run or fewer in 21 of those starts and that he led the American League in ERA, in ERA+ at 215, and in FanGraphs wins above replacement at 6.2.

The season also stands up inside the franchise's own record. Among qualified Yankees starters, only Spud Chandler, at 1.64 in 1943, and Guidry, at 1.74 in 1978, finished with a lower ERA than Schlittler's 1.95, according to ESPN. His best work came on the road: a 1.16 ERA in 17 starts away from Yankee Stadium.

The margin of the vote says the same thing the numbers do. The BBWAA's two writers from each American League city gave Cease 22 second-place votes, six thirds and two fourths. Messick drew seven seconds, and Tampa Bay's Drew Rasmussen, with 72 points, finished fourth. Schlittler, Cease, Messick and Rasmussen were the only four pitchers named on every one of the 30 ballots. The AL award has now gone to a unanimous choice 14 times, according to the association.

How the New York and Boston writers voted

The ballots are public, and they show no split along rivalry lines. The association tallies them at seven points for a first-place vote, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth, with two writers from each American League city. New York's two voters, Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Erik Boland of Newsday, both put Schlittler first and Cease second; Heyman had Messick third and Boland had Rasmussen. In Boston, home of the team Schlittler rooted for growing up, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe and Christopher Smith of MassLive.com also ranked him first, as did both writers from Tampa Bay, the city whose team won the division. That is what unanimity means in this vote: all 30 writers, including those covering the two clubs that finished around the Yankees in the East, ranked him first for the regular season.

How a seventh-round pick became the Yankees' first Cy Young since Cole

Schlittler's path to the award was not the usual one for an ace. The Yankees took him in the seventh round of the 2022 draft out of Northeastern University, and his fastball averaged in the low 90s in his first full professional season in 2023, ESPN reported. Delivery changes and added strength pushed the velocity up until he reached 100 mph for the first time in his major league debut at Yankee Stadium in July 2025. Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, according to MLB's records, he grew up a Boston Red Sox fan, and ESPN noted that he held the Red Sox scoreless over eight innings with 12 strikeouts and no walks in Game 3 of the 2025 AL Wild Card Series.

This season he worked off three fastballs. ESPN put his four-seamer at an average of 98 mph, his cutter at 94.6 mph and his sinker at 97.8 mph, with a power curveball he leaned on more as the season went on. He is 25, born on February 5, 2001, and the award came in his first full major league season.

His own account of the year was modest. "Realistically, I look at it and I'm just happy," Schlittler said, according to ESPN. "The goal, honestly, coming into the season was to stay healthy, be consistent, and make all my starts. That's something I was able to do."

The Yankees staff around Schlittler

The award also measures what the rest of the rotation could not give. The Yankees' pitching staff finished 2026 with a 3.23 ERA, by MLB's team statistics, the best in the majors according to ESPN, even as Cole, Fried and Rodon spent extended periods out. The Yankees went 93-68 and finished second in the American League East, four and a half games behind the 98-64 Rays, according to MLB's final standings.

The injury news did not stop when the season did. General manager Brian Cashman said on November 10 that Fried had a bone spur removed from his throwing elbow and is expected to begin his throwing program in December, ESPN reported. Fried, who went 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA in 112 2/3 innings in 2026 and had two separate injured-list stints for a left elbow bone bruise, is in the second year of an eight-year, $218 million contract, and Cashman said he would be ready for a normal start to spring training. Cashman added that Aaron Judge, who missed most of the season with a right hip fracture, will need no new procedures and will be "ready to go" for 2027.

The coaching staff is changing too. On November 11, the Houston Astros hired Brad Ausmus, Aaron Boone's bench coach with the Yankees since 2024, as their manager, ESPN reported, citing Astros general manager Randy Flores. Ausmus is to be introduced in Houston on Friday, November 13.

That leaves the Yankees heading into the winter with one settled fact at the top of the rotation and open questions behind it. Schlittler made all 33 of his starts, while Cole, Fried and Rodon each missed extended time. The vote does not answer whether that holds in 2027; it records that in 2026, the 25-year-old was the starter who took every turn.

What comes next for Schlittler and the Yankees

Schlittler said he sees room to improve. "I definitely could have had a better season," he said, according to ESPN, pointing to "a few hiccups along the road." The next dated steps for the club are Ausmus's introduction in Houston on November 13, which leaves Boone without the bench coach he has had since 2024, and Fried's return to throwing in December. Earlier reporting on this site followed Schlittler's October start in the Yankees' Division Series game 2 against Tampa Bay and how the Yankees' season ended against the Rays; the club's page on this site is the New York Yankees team page.