Rookie Cam Schlittler Emerges as Yankees’ “It” Factor for Playoff Push

Rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler becoming the “It” guy opens a door for the New York Yankees that Gerrit Cole’s season-ending elbow injury^[1] appeared to have shut.

They can win the World Series with Schlittler performing like he did in the AL Wild Card clincher against the Boston Red Sox^[2] on Thursday night. With his team facing elimination, Schlittler struck out 12 over eight scoreless (and walk-less) innings, allowing just five singles. Eight innings — in a playoff game, something Cole did one time (for the Astros in 2019) over 22 career postseason starts.

When the Yankees lost Cole in Spring Training to a UCL tear and Tommy John surgery, it wasn’t like a third or fourth starter went down. Cole was an ace, someone building Hall of Fame credentials since his rookie season in 2013. And that’s not even including the postseason, where he compiled a 2.77 ERA and had 156 strikeouts in 133 1/3 innings. Cole’s teams had gone 13-9 in his postseason starts.

The Yankees, to their credit, covered Cole’s absence in the regular season, even after losing multiple other starting pitchers at different times. Led by left-handers Max Fried and Carlos Rodón, New York starters as a group finished ninth overall in win probability added, fourth in ERA and eighth in WAR at Fangraphs. Very good, even dependable, as starters go. Schlittler, 24, had looked promising as a midseason promotion, posting a 2.96 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 14 starts in the second half after starting the year at Double-A.

Cole told reporters at Yankee Stadium that Schlittler’s performance against the Red Sox made it plain to him: He’s got “it.”

“There are different paths to greatness up here, but this guy has come up and delivered right away,” Cole said. “He’s got it. I don’t know exactly what it is, it’s hard to define it, but he’s got it.”

Boston’s lineup wasn’t functioning at 100 percent capacity without star rookie Roman Anthony^[3] and others. They also didn’t have right-hander Lucas Giolito available in the series because of an elbow injury. But they also won nine of 14 in the regular-season series, and in the Wild Card they came close to finishing off the Yankees in two games.

And then Schlittler happened.

There’s a layer of theater, and a degree of difficulty, to Yankees-Red Sox that makes Schlittler’s performance doubly impressive. The Red Sox were supposed to have vanquished the Curse of Babe Ruth back in 2004, but the Yankees do what they can to ignore that. For example, by having Bucky flipping Dent throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Schlittler, having grown up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Mass., knows who Bucky flipping Dent is. He didn’t let it bother him during the game. And after, he even “sang” a few words of “Dirty Water” on social media.

Schlittler appears to have “it,” all right.

And with him added to the rotation, the Yankees have enough of “it” to win their first World Series since 2009. The Yankees having three starters capable of dominating deep into a game gives them something the Toronto Blue Jays, their opponent in the ALDS, likely cannot match. It’s true that Schlittler got poor results against the Blue Jays in two starts this summer. The Jays will get a chance to confirm those results next week.

It was a curious decision by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman to not add another top-line starting pitcher at the trade deadline. The same could be said for the Red Sox and a half-dozen other teams unwilling to part with prospects or whatever. Perhaps the Yankees had an inkling that they had “it” all along in the organization.