The New York Yankees have the second-best record in the American League with 87 wins entering Tuesday. That includes a long absence from reigning AL MVP winner Aaron Judge, who has played just 65 games due to injury.
Recently, Yankees star pitcher Cam Schlittler has been gaining traction in the MVP discussion, and ex-Yankees pitcher David Cone named Schlittler as his pick for this year’s award.
“If you took Schlittler off the Yankees this year, where would they be?” Cone asked. “Schlittler’s right up there. He deserves, definitely, strong consideration.”
.@dcone36 makes the case for why Cam Schlittler deserves "strong consideration" for AL MVP.
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) September 15, 2026
ALL NEW The Show with @Joelsherman1 & @JonHeyman –> https://t.co/7WgYuyVkXI pic.twitter.com/tImNJusV3F
Apart from the lengthy injury to Judge, the Yankees also saw Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon miss notable time.
Nonetheless, Schlittler has a 14-6 record with a 1.95 ERA in 31 appearances. Schlittler is tied with Milwaukee Brewers star Jacob Misiorowski for the best ERA in baseball, and they are also the only two pitchers with an ERA under 2.00.
Judge, who won the award last year, made his feelings clear on the Cam Schlittler MVP discussion by saying he would vote for his teammate for the Cy Young.
“They’ve got a Cy Young Award for a reason,” Judge said. “Best pitcher in the game. He’s got my vote, definitely, for the Cy Young.”
The last pitcher to win an MVP award was Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
