Schlittler blanks Mets, tightens Cy Young and MVP races — SkimNews
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- Cam Schlittler threw six shutout innings against the crosstown Mets, allowing one hit with eight strikeouts in the Yankees' 2-0 win.
- Schlittler is tied with Jacob Misiorowski at a 1.95 ERA (lowest among qualified pitchers) and tied at 6.0 WAR (best among all pitchers), per the article's leaderboard snapshot entering Monday.
- Aaron Boone said Schlittler 'might be the MVP, too,' but Aaron Judge — a three-time MVP himself — pushed back: Schlittler has 'got my vote, definitely, for the Cy Young,' splitting the Yankees' clubhouse on which award fits.
- Schlittler carried New York's rotation while Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodón all missed time with injuries, and Aaron Judge sat out three months with a broken rib — a narrative case the article argues is 'probably the best' in the AL.
- Junior Caminero lurks as a serious MVP factor: he leads the American League with 40 home runs and is the best player on the AL's best team (the Rays), sitting sixth in FanGraphs WAR and eighth in Baseball Reference WAR.
- No pitcher has won MVP since Clayton Kershaw in 2014; Justin Verlander was the AL's last pitcher MVP in 2011, and both doubled up Cy Young and MVP in those seasons — a historical hurdle Schlittler faces.
- The Yankees improved to 86-63, sitting four games behind the Rays in the AL East and 4½ games up on the Red Sox for the top wild-card spot, with a magic number of one to clinch a postseason berth.
Why it matters: Schlittler's Cy Young is essentially locked in, but the MVP question is now a real ballot fight — and the Yankees' own three-time MVP just publicly argued against it. With the Yankees one win from clinching a playoff spot and Schlittler posting best-in-baseball WAR, his case is the rare one a manager publicly elevates while a Hall-of-Fame-vote teammate pushes back.
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