Yankees Cam Schlittler has likely ended the Cy Young race with Blue Jays' Dylan Cease

For most of the 2026 MLB season, it’s been clear that either New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler or Toronto Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease would win the American League Cy Young Award. The question was which of the two would pull ahead.

The answer appears to be Schlittler with September winding down. His most recent start against the New York Mets was the nail in the coffin: six shutout innings with eight strikeouts and just one hit allowed, which whittled his league-leading ERA down to 1.95. 

Schlittler is, justifiably, not a popular player in Toronto. He’s never shy to speak his mind or take an opportunity to rub someone the wrong way. But his greatness this year can’t be denied. Whether you love him or hate him, the award is officially his to lose. 

Why should Cam Schlittler win the Cy Young over Dylan Cease? 

There’s an argument to be made that Schlittler is authoring one of the finest pitching seasons in the storied history of the Yankees franchise. The right-hander has given up one earned run or fewer in 23 of his 31 starts this season. 

Beyond that sparkling 1.95 ERA (216 ERA+), Schlittler also leads the AL in WHIP (0.904) and innings pitched (184.2). His 6.0 fWAR is also tied with Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski for the most among all pitchers. 

Schlittler is the poster boy for a fastball-centric style of pitching that has become increasingly popular over the last two years. While he technically throws five pitches, 89% of them are either a cutter, fourseam fastball, or sinker. This approach works when your average velocity on the latter two of those pitches sits around 98 mph. 

Yet, for all that, it still wouldn’t be unfair to say Cease has been the most overpowering pitcher in the AL this season—even more so than Schlittler. 

Cease reached a career-high 236 strikeouts after punching out nine on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles. He managed this despite having diminished velocity on his fastball and persistent command issues for the second straight outing. 

The right-hander’s peripheral statistics remain staggering in their own right. He leads the AL with a 2.48 FIP and his 12.77 K/9 trails only Misiorowski. His 35.3% K-rate unsurprisingly sits in the 99th percentile amongst all qualified pitchers. 

The case for Schlittler over Cease boils down to the primary responsibility of the pitcher: preventing the other team from scoring runs. He’s simply done a better job of that, even though Cease has been tremendous at it in his own right. This would be a different story if the pitcher’s primary purpose was solely to strike out opposing hitters. 

Both pitchers have been fantastic in 2026, but it would be blasphemous not to give the Cy Young to the guy who has a sub-2.00 ERA over more innings. Still, that shouldn’t take away anything from Cease—he’s been phenomenal this season. This could be the first of many battles for the Cy Young between these two AL East rivals.

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