Aaron Judge's bizarre MVP quote had better be Cam Schlittler rage bait

On Sunday afternoon, Cam Schlittler did what Cam Schlittler does, dominating the Mets over six scoreless frames, drawing himself further into Ron Guidry territory among all-time Yankees aces. He locked down the Cy Young (on Tuesday, probably, if we're being honest), and has now moved onto bigger and better things, aided by Yordan Álvarez sitting in Tampa as his .700 September OPS drips onto his full-season numbers and ruins the picture.

Could Schlittler do the unthinkable and earn American League MVP honors with a summer push? If Álvarez falls short of the Triple Crown and Schlittler wipes the floor with his WAR, then why not?

Only Aaron Judge, pretty bluntly, doesn't see it that way, dropping a quote on Sunday that was either brutally honest or intentionally designed to annoy Schlittler.

There was one line more to this quote, in actuality, but while it covered Judge's bases, it didn't exactly invalidate the rest of the sentiment. You go over there, Cam. Just hang out in the corner. This isn't for you. This is your captain speaking.

He might as well have spiked the camera from the Fenway Park stands and snapped, "I don't like you, Cam Schlittler!"

Judge's quote once again exposed the reality that hitters and pitchers can kind of get competitive about these types of things. They're on the same team, sure, but they're also boxed off and work alongside their own hyper-aggressive units that feed off one another.

And that's where we can hope that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't a PR flub, but Judge's transparent attempt to give Schlittler one last dose of motivation. We know, as devoted listeners of the Section 10 podcast, of course, that he pays attention to everything. From Big Sunglasses to Regression to recirculated standings quotes, he has his ears open constantly. He's terminally online, a behavior that is encouraged and cultivated by the Yankees' staff. Yes, it's kinda sad. It also very much works.

Just yesterday, Schlittler admitted that Mets fans having a little too much fun on Saturday prompted him to dial it up to ruin their lives on Sunday. Again, whatever works. The chips on the shoulder come easily for Schlittler, but they rarely come from within his own locker room.

If Judge was trying to set him off, then it probably worked. Unfortunately, a long week of hamstring calisthenics after he was drilled by a hotshot may distract him from annoying quotes. It may even push back his next start. But Judge knows he's Judge, and any semi-inflammatory comment would get picked up, swirled, and deposited in Schlittler's ear canal either way. So who knows? Maybe this'll pay dividends.

Or maybe Judge just really doesn't think pitchers should win MVP awards and doesn't care who knows. Also possible.

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