Fast-rising Yankees pitching prospect’s dud ends Double-A team’s season too soon

Postseason baseball for New York’s minor league affiliates came to a grinding halt Tuesday night, as the Double-A Somerset Patriots were swept out of the 2024 Eastern League Championship Series in a 3-2 loss to Detroit’s affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, in Game 2 of the best-of-three series.

That follows the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades dropping the South Atlantic League Championship Series 2-1 last week to Tampa Bay’s affiliate, the Bowling Green Hot Rods.

Running through both storylines is fast-rising Yankees starting pitching prospect Cam Schlittler, whose fate seems to have been intertwined between both teams and their ultimately unsuccessful runs at their respective league championships.

Named the High-A South Atlantic League’s Pitcher of the Year for his outstanding work with Hudson Valley, Schlittler was promoted to the Double-A Patriots on Aug. 6, and debuted at No. 25 on the updated MLB Pipeline top 30 prospect ranking as well.

Two Yankees affiliates stung by Cam Schlittler in MiLB Playoffs

But that meant Hudson Valley was missing their best pitcher when they needed him most in the South Atlantic League Championship Series last week. And, facing an elimination game Tuesday in the Eastern League Championship Series, Schlittler pitched a dud to prematurely end Somerset’s season.

While the Patriots, led by stud prospect Spencer Jones and ace Zach Messinger, reached the playoffs for the third straight season and the championship series for a second time in the past three years, Schlittler came up short. He labored through four innings, throwing 85 pitches and allowing four hits, four walks and three earned runs in the elimination game.

So there was to be no repeat of the 2022 Eastern League Championship, when No. 1 prospect Jasson Domínguez (three home runs, six RBI, two walks) and the since-traded Randy Vásquez led Somerset to a no-hit victory over Erie in the decisive Game 3 of the ELCS that year to clinch the franchise's first league title.

So that’s a wrap on the 2024 minor league season for the Yankees’ affiliates. Some of their top 22- and 23-year-old prospects will be playing in the Arizona Fall League to get more reps in, but it's officially a wrap on Schlittler's season until 2025.