Before Cam Schlittler debuted last July, Carlos Rod\u00f3n stood in the bullpen and watched the rookie consistently pump 100 mph. It didn\u2019t take long for the veteran to realize he was witnessing the early stages of an ace in the making.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty obvious to me that he\u2019s really good at this game,\u201d Rod\u00f3n said of Schlittler.<\/p>\n A year later, Rice and Schlittler are not just breakout stars for the Yankees. They\u2019ve also developed into legitimate MVP and Cy Young Award contenders, respectively. In the process, the homegrown players have meaningfully altered the Yankees\u2019 present \u2014 and future, far beyond 2026. While the Yankees remain focused on winning a championship this season with Aaron Judge at the center of everything, Rice and Schlittler have increasingly looked like the type of pillars capable of carrying the club into its next era.<\/p>\n Rice, 27, won\u2019t be eligible for free agency until\u00a02031, while Schlittler, 25, won\u2019t become a free agent until 2032. That gives the Yankees at least five more cost-controlled seasons for both players.<\/p>\n When the Yankees aggressively pursued Juan Soto in free agency two years ago, part of the thinking was that he could become the face of the franchise once Judge\u2019s prime ended. That, of course, did not come to fruition, as Soto opted to sign for more money with the New York Mets. But given how Rice and Schlittler have developed, the Yankees may already have their next foundational stars in-house \u2014 and at a fraction of Soto\u2019s cost ($51 million average annual value). What Soto makes every two weeks is nearly the combined yearly salaries of both players.<\/p>\n \u201cTo see them both playing at this high of a level, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cNow it\u2019s impossible to maybe expect one to be the MVP and one to be the Cy Young, but I\u2019m not surprised. I don\u2019t think any of us are surprised at their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n Rice and Schlittler were never supposed to become this, though. <\/p>\n Neither ranked among the Yankees\u2019 elite prospects. Neither arrived with the pedigree typically associated with potential franchise cornerstones. Rice was a 12th-round pick out of Dartmouth in 2021. Schlittler was drafted in the seventh round out of Northeastern in 2022. Neither generated much attention outside scouting circles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought Rice could be an impactful bat, but in terms of projecting if they were both gonna do this in New York and all that stuff, I can\u2019t say that,\u201d Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said of his young stars.<\/p>\n \n Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler, pictured last year, are under team control through 2031 and 2032, respectively. (Evan Bernstein \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n The Yankees might not have landed either player if Northeast area scout Matt Hyde hadn\u2019t identified them years before they became household names. Hyde still remembers the moment he began envisioning Schlittler\u2019s ceiling. Northeastern manager Mike Glavine, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine\u2019s brother, turned to Hyde one day while they watched Schlittler throw a bullpen and said that he believed, with proper training, the lanky, 6-foot-6 starter would eventually throw 100 mph.<\/p>\n But beyond velocity, Yankees evaluators kept coming back to the same trait with Schlittler: He performed his best in the biggest games.<\/p>\n Three years before Schlittler authored one of the greatest starts<\/a> in Yankees postseason history, shutting out the Boston Red Sox for eight innings in Game 3 of the 2025 Wild Card Series, Yankees scout Ricky Castle was in attendance to see him pitch eight scoreless innings against North Carolina State, a team that had an .896 OPS that season. That outing put Schlittler firmly on the Yankees\u2019 radar.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rice\u2019s path to becoming a Yankee was harder to foresee.<\/p>\n Dartmouth canceled two seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing him to organize his own opportunities to play, which Hyde calls the \u201cBen Rice League.\u201d<\/a> The lack of available data compelled the Yankees to evaluate more than typical skills such as Rice\u2019s swing, but also his ability to handle uncertainty and adversity, a key trait for any major leaguer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew, in Ben, we were getting a guy who was going to work as hard as he could to maximize his ability, and he had the intelligence to self-assess and know where he had to make adjustments,\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n Rice\u2019s and Schlittler\u2019s willingness to identify weaknesses and attack them have become defining characteristics in their respective rises.<\/p>\n Rice entered this season intent on improving against left-handed pitching and breaking balls. After posting a 104 wRC+ versus left-handers last season, Rice\u2019s 169 wRC+ versus lefties is fifth-best among all lefty hitters. His OPS against breaking pitches has risen from .786 last season to .822 this season.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2231384527-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2271855104-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274087846-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n