Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz break down the AL Cy Young race and how it’s currently a battle between teammates in New York. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
View more
Advertisement
Video Transcript
And this is maybe the most interesting award of all of these, because the top three from last season are now all on the injured list.
That’s Tarik Skubal, as we discussed at length earlier.
That is Hunter Brown, who we mentioned in passing.
It is also Gerrit Crochet, who is not expected to be out for much longer with his shoulder inflammation.
However, shoulder inflammation, don’t love that, as we mentioned.
Shoulder, don’t love that.
And also, he just hasn’t really been that good so far this season.
So he wasn’t pitching like he was in the mix anyway, which opens the door for a few other pitchers to, to kind of fill the void here, including, most notably, the guy who finished fourth last season, and someone who has come close to a Cy Young in the past, and that is Yankees lefty Max Fried, who has been terrific.
Advertisement
He is not going to be at the top of the strikeout leaderboard like most modern aces, but he’s about as reliable of a starting pitcher from a run prevention standpoint- He’s done the bit as we’ve had this generation.
He’s done the shtick for long enough where it’s like no one’s sitting here worried like, “Oh no, can Max Fried get outs with a K per nine under eight?”
It’s like, yeah.
He can, folks.
It’s- He definitely can.
Yes.
So if, if he gets the 200 innings, which he’s on pace to do, which would be a career high and no one’s really doing that anymore, he is gonna have a, a good shot.
However, there’s, it’s 2026, and what do, what do we like here in 2026?
Advertisement
We like the big guys that throw really hard and strike people out and are on Pitching Ninja.
and that’s Cam Schlittler, his teammate, who has been unbelievable and is throwing outrageously hard and now has, you know, a, a tiny ERA.
And I think what is most impressive about Schlittler so far is just the strikes that he’s throwing.
He’s not walking guys.
He’s throwing- Yeah just normally there’s some amount of trade-off when you are throwing this hard in terms of command and control.
He’s also very interesting because he’s basically just throwing three fastballs, you know, four-seam sinker and cutter.
Advertisement
Now to call the cutter, I mean it is technically a fastball.
The, the, the- It’s slider, man root on the cutter is still, still screams slider.
that said, it is unusual.
He doesn’t really throw another- Yes breaking ball.
He doesn’t throw a changeup at all.
But man, oh man, this guy has looked incredible.
And he, I think, would be my pick right now, but I don’t know about you.
Has to be.
He I mean, he has the seventh lowest walk rate in the sport among qualified starters.
Ridiculous.
That’s nuts.
Ridiculous.
That’s nuts.
Yeah.
Because- It’s kind of like- I got to, like, last year- It’s like the version of Yordan.
Advertisement
It’s like Yordan, yeah.
Like, ’cause like last year, Cam Schlittler, even when he was going really well after coming up with the Yankees as a rookie, I never got the sense that he really knew where the ball was going.
Like this stuff was so good where he could get whiffs in the zone, and it is a great ex- it was, it was a great example of the difference between control and command, where, like, he was walking guys, but, like, he was throwing it in the box, but he wasn’t always throwing it where he needed it to go in the box, and this year he’s doing that more often.
And it’s just a reminder that this is a relatively slow burn.
Advertisement
He’s a lot taller pitcher who’s new to his velocity, cold weather guy.
Like, there are a lot of factors here that have always pointed towards there being more in the tank.
I just thought that we’ve reached the peak last year.
I didn’t think there was another level.
And yet here we are seeing the best version- Well- of Cam Schlittler