Cam Schlittler just put exclamation point on ridiculous growth with Yankees history

The New York Yankees love to be haughty and holier-than-thou while touting their development processes and internal metrics. There are plenty of reasons to question their expertise when it comes to graduating offensive prospects from Triple-A and growing their skills over time. But when it comes to pitching, it's way harder to take aim at the Yankees' methods. They usually work. Sometimes, they work overtime.

But for every Luis Gil they've tried to sharpen and Clarke Schmidt they've harnessed, there hasn't been a pitcher to truly break the mold until now. Cam Schlittler hasn't just made himself a viable trade asset or cracked the big leagues. He's shattered any projected ceiling by adding close to 10 miles per hour to his peak velocity in just two years.

That's not an exaggeration. While his MLB debut against the Mariners was uneven, it was highlighted by a deluge of 100 MPH+ fastballs that took over the 2025 Yankees' leaderboard immediately. Since then, he's sat at 98 and been able to dial things back over 100 when needed, culminating in his second consecutive start (Monday against the Nationals) featuring 6+ innings and 8+ Ks.

That's the first time a Yankees rookie has ever accomplished such a thing, and it comes only two years after he was an unknown small school product sitting in the low 90s at Low-A and relying on a deep arsenal over peak velocity.

Yankees' Cam Schlittler has become an entirely different pitcher with a massive ceiling in two years

When Schlittler was promoted in mid-July, it didn't seem reasonable for the Yankees to expect more from him than occasional flashes of brilliance distilled through a rookie's unpredictable body. Sometimes, the outings might be short and varying degrees of sweet. Sometimes, they might be a forgettable mess (but not a long-term concern).

It certainly hasn't taken long for Schlittler to raise expectations. He has already provided surplus value, plus plenty to dream on.

In fact, he's looked more like an All-Star than last month's controversial selection, and he's doing it on the impossible stage of "the Bronx, mid-collapse, during a nerve-wracking playoff race."

Schlittler is already a completely new level of Yankees development win, and after just eight starts seems like a more trustworthy potential playoff starter than the also flashy Will Warren. Or perhaps he'd be an all-time caddy for a scuffling starter in Games 1 or 2 of a way-too-short series. However he's used, he should factor into October while throwing flames.

That marks an impossibly quick ascent from his humble beginnings of July against the Mariners, let alone Summer 2023 when he was still searching for an edge.