TAMPA — Cam Schlittler thinks previous incarnations of him “sucked.” Really, that is his assessment.
The draft-eligible junior at Northeastern in 2022? “That guy sucks.” The Opening Day starter for the Double-A Somerset Patriots in 2025? “That guy sucked.” The righty called up to make his major league debut last July 9? “I’m just a completely different pitcher from that guy.”
Schlittler has harsh reviews of his past self, even as he blossoms into a potential ace. Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake noted the transformation. Blake said Schlittler went from “a common college right-hander” when drafted in 2022, to someone who “has a chance to help us down the road” after a velocity uptick last spring. Now, Blake says, “This guy has kind of turned into a monster.”
In four decades doing this I have seen meteors shoot from off-camera to star, but rarely as fast and northward as Schlittler. Just in the past 12 months, he has navigated from the anonymity of the cattle call of pitchers invited to spring — No. 76 in your program if you remember that — to being as essential as anyone to saving the Yankee season both late in the 2025 schedule and in the wild-card round to now a central part of a potential stuff-heavy, high-end rotation that stands as the most optimistic reason to believe a first championship since 2009 is possible.
