Complete Yankees Cy Young history as Cam Schlittler inches closer to 2026 award

Even the biggest of homers couldn’t predict just how dominant Cam Schlittler would be this season. The ace of the New York Yankees has cemented himself as one of the top pitchers in all of baseball and proven that last year was not a fluke. Schlittler’s 2026 season may even go down as one of the best pitching performances in the entire history of the franchise. Despite the Yankees’ storied franchise, only six pitchers have won the Cy Young award for the team. Schlittler is likely about to change that.

With 6.0 fWAR accumulated throughout the 2026 season, Schlittler is tied with Milwaukee Brewers’ sensation Jacob Misiorowski for the league lead among pitchers. It’s no coincidence that both hurlers are the favorites to take home the Cy Young in their respective leagues. For Schlittler, he’d not only be the seventh Yankees pitcher to win the award, but he’d also be the youngest.

As the Yankees prepare for another postseason run, they will hope that Schlittler’s historic performance is able to carry over into October. As history has taught us, the Yankees win when their pitchers win.

Yankees Complete History of Cy Young Award Winners

It’s hard to fathom that the Yankees only average a Cy Young award winner every 20 years or so. From Mike Mussina to CC Sabathia, the franchise has certainly featured plenty of Hall of Fame pitchers that have come close to winning the award. Mussina was overshadowed by teammate Roger Clemens during his stellar 2001 campaign with the Yankees. Sabathia got as close to third place in the voting following his 2010 season.

Even the great Mariano Rivera couldn’t quite do enough to sway the voters and win the elusive award as a reliever. He finished in the top three of voting four separate times. This includes two seasons when he finished in the top 10 of the MVP race. It’s rare, but pitchers have occasionally made strong cases for MVP.

We’ll detail the six previous Yankees who actually managed to cross the finish line and why they deserved to take home the top pitching award. And because a Yankees season isn’t complete without a World Series title, we’ll also note how far a Cy Young winner got the team in the postseason.

Gerrit Cole, 2023

As the most recent Yankees pitcher to win the award, Gerrit Cole did something in 2023 that only one other player had accomplished in the team’s history, winning the award by unanimous decision. With all 30 first place votes, Cole more than doubled the amount of points that second-place pitcher Sonny Gray received.

As you might imagine, Cole’s 2023 is his most impressive season with the Yankees since joining the club in 2020. He struck out 222 hitters across 209 innings pitched. Although his 3.16 FIP doesn’t scream “elite pitcher,” he allowed just 157 hits while surrendering just 48 walks.

Despite Cole’s brilliance, the club finished with a mediocre 82-80 record, missing out on the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season, though you couldn’t blame Cole for that. He boasted a 1.03 ERA and a minuscule 0.686 WHIP over his last five starts of the season, including a two-hit shutdown against the Toronto Blue Jays in his last start of the season. If only Aaron Judge hadn't run toe-first into the wall at Dodger Stadium.

Roger Clemens, 2001

As mentioned earlier, Clemens scooped away a lot of votes from Mussina when he won the Cy Young in 2001. Some would argue that Clemens probably stole that award, but you can’t deny that he still had a very good season.

With more emphasis placed on individual wins back then, Clemens boasted 20 wins to go alongside his 213 strikeouts. Clemens’ 2001 season would probably be considered his weakest of his seven award-winning seasons. But hey, it was the early 2000s. People voted more on vibes than actual performance.

Clemens’ 3.29 FIP that season was enough to help take the Yankees to the World Series, where they lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But we don’t have to dwell on that part.

Ron Guidry, 1978

Before Clemens won the award in 2001, it had been 23 years since a Yankees pitcher won it. But oh man, did Ron Guidry ever earn the award in 1978. With a 1.74 ERA across 273 1/3 innings pitched, his season is what many consider to be the best by a pitcher in team history. His home run per nine rate of 0.4 is almost laughable.

Even by modern metrics, Guidry was the clear-cut winner that season. His 2.19 FIP and 208 ERA+ was leaps and bounds better than any other pitcher up for consideration that year, which is why he became the first Yankees pitcher to win the award unanimously.

Guidry was a large reason that the team won 100 games that year. The Yankees would carry that tremendous momentum into the postseason and defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Sparky Lyle, 1977

Unlike the long wait in between Clemens and Guidry winning the Cy Young, the Yankees actually had quite the time in the late 70s when it came to award-winning pitchers. Before Guidry, the team saw reliever Sparky Lyle take home the award in 1977. He became just the second reliever in MLB history to win the honor. Since then, seven more relievers have joined the rare club.

When looking at his numbers, you probably wouldn’t really consider Lyle to be a dominant force out of the bullpen. Despite that, he was certainly one of the most effective pitchers in the league. With just 68 strikeouts in 137 innings, Lyle didn’t just rely on swing and misses to get outs. He collected 13 wins and 26 saves, demonstrating just how pivotal he was to the Yankees.

With Lyle coming out of the pen, the Yankees won 100 games in the regular season. He then helped pave the way to a World Series title over the Dodgers.

Whitey Ford, 1961

With 236 career wins and six World Series rings in his collection, Whitey Ford is one of the foremost Yankees winners in team history. In 1961, he added a Cy Young to his trophy case. At 32 years old, he threw a career-high 283 innings, which included 11 complete games and three shutouts.

Ford’s 1961 season may be outshined in the annals of history by Roger Maris’ record-setting performance, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. Like other pitchers on this list, Ford didn’t put up mind-boggling numbers or boast off-the-charts metrics. Outside of innings pitched, he didn’t really do one thing extremely well. However, he did do just about everything very well.

Ford was more than enough of a pitcher to be considered the ace of a team that some argue to be one of the best teams in MLB history. With 109 wins and a World Series title, it is hard to argue against that claim.

Bob Turley, 1958

Just three years before Ford won his Cy Young, Bob Turley became the first Yankees pitcher to win the award in 1958. Once again, like a number of other Yankees on this list, Turley’s 1958 season isn’t something that you would circle as an all-time great year. His 4.04 WHIP and 119 ERA+ were shockingly poor in hindsight.

Turley probably became the first Yankees pitcher to steal the award from a more deserving pitcher as well. Sorry, Warren Spahn. While Turley threw 245 1/3 innings, including 19 complete games, he was an especially wild pitcher. Turley walked 128 batters, nearly double the amount of walks surrendered by the second and third place pitchers in the Cy Young voting combined that year.

With all of that said, Turley pitched well enough to help lead the Yankees to 92 wins. They then went on to defeat the Milwaukee Braves in seven games in the World Series. When all is said and done, what more could you ask for?

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