Yankees fans are overlooking an underrated development in Cam Schlittler's arsenal

Cam Schlittler sliced and diced the San Francisco Giants as the New York Yankees kicked off the 2026 season with a sweep. Even for the most bullish Schlittler supporter — and honestly, who isn't enamored with the budding star — the pitch-count-limited performance was jaw-dropping.

The 25-year-old allowed just one hit over 5 1/3 innings, striking out eight, which equates to an eye-popping 47.1% K-rate. His fastball velocity was half a tick higher than what he averaged last season. His sinker was as nasty as ever. So much for the spring back issue limiting him.

We saw his new-and-improved cutter on display, too, and not only did it come in at 95 miles per hour — a full three miles per hour faster than last year — but it's drawn comparisons to Corbin Burnes' bread-and-butter pitch during his 2021 Cy Young campaign.

But while the improved cutter has drawn much of the attention, Schlittler's curveball seems to have leveled up, too, and it could elevate him even further.

Cam Schlittler's curveball could prove to be a Yankees' secret weapon

If there was a concern about Schlittler, it was that his arsenal basically only consisted of different variations of the fastball. His method of getting outs was fast, and then faster. That could work for some time, but while his three variations of the fastball all move in different directions, they can eventually get hit since the batter only has to guess location and not velocity.

That's why a productive breaking pitch could be a game changer for Schlittler, and his first outing seems to indicate that he might have found one. The righty only threw seven of them over his 68-pitch outing, but what they showed was intriguing.

There are two distinct changes from 2025 that could bode well. First, he threw the breaker nearly two miles per hour faster, going from an average of 83.3 miles per hour to 85.2 miles per hour against the Giants. The additional speed changed the way the pitch broke, tightening it up in both directions.

The 2025 version of the curve produced -12.7 inches of induced vertical break and seven inches of glove-side horizontal break. In his first start, it only managed -7.0 inches of iVB and broke just 2.6 inches to the glove side. As a result, it netted a 33% chase rate and 66.7% whiff rate. Last year, hitters only whiffed 21.4% of the time against his curve.

The run value per 100 pitches on the curve against San Francisco came out to 4.9 versus -0.8 a year ago. The improved cutter only produced a (still very good) 3.9 RV/100.

We often think about big, slow, looping 12-6 curveballs as the ideal way to execute the pitch, but in Schlittler's case, the faster, harder offering makes sense. With the horizontal break nearly eliminated and the vertical movement reduced, it tunnels better with his fastballs, making it harder to pick up. Once a hitter realizes that it's not a heater, it still has enough speed differential and drop to make it tough to square up, and will have batters swinging over the top.

The pitch might still only be an occasional offering. That's fine. It's still looking like a weapon rather than a show-me pitch like it was for much of last season. In fact, the scarcity will make it all that much harder to pick up. It shouldn't be a shock to see it become Schlittler's go-to pitch when he needs a strikeout, and we'll be watching with interest to see if he can keep producing stellar results with it. If he can, he'll skyrocket to the top and become regarded as one of the game's few true aces.