Cam Schlittler Could Break Yankees Protocol After Cy Young Win

New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler captured the AL Cy Young award for the 2026 MLB campaign, winning a unanimous vote to take home an honor that seemed incomprehensible when he made what appeared to be an arbitrary big-league debut in July 2025.

Schlittler was thoroughly dominant this past season, posting a 1.95 ERA while allowing just 129 hits and racking up 239 strikeouts over 193.2 innings of work.

That followed a 2025 showing in which he logged a 2.96 ERA and 1.219 WHIP across 14 regular-season starts. Of course, he then followed that up with a lights-out performance in Game 3 of the Yankees' Wild Card Series win over the Boston Red Sox.

Schlittler shut the Red Sox down in the playoffs once again this year, as well, topping them in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.

At just 25 years old, the right-hander still has ample room to grow, and while it's certainly asking a lot to expect a sub-2.00 ERA every year going forward, it's obvious that Schlittler is special. Perhaps special enough to break Yankees protocol.

And what is that protocol, you ask? Earning himself a contract extension.

New York does not typically hand out extensions before a player hits free agency. In fact, the last time it happened was Aaron Hicks in February 2019 (which did not exactly build a case for the Yanks to continue doing so).

The Yankees didn't even do so for Aaron Judge.

Schlittler, however, could ultimately cause New York to think twice, especially if the new CBA results in service time before free agency becoming five years instead of six.

Currently, Schlittler is on track to hit the open market in 2032. But should the service time decrease by a year, it would move Schlitter's free agency to 2031.

Obviously, that's still quite a ways away, but it might be wise for the Yankees to buy out Schlittler's arbitration years now.

Of course, because Schlittler is a pitcher (and a hard-throwing one, at that), New York will have to be careful. Pitchers are certainly much more prone to injury than position players, which is what makes this so dicey.

But can the Yankees really imagine Schlittler ever donning anything other than pinstripes at this point?

New York might have to give some serious thought to breaking a longstanding policy for Schlittler, who has now established himself as the best pitcher in the American League.