The New York Yankees have one player they will not trade away â and according to Bleacher Report, that player is not Aaron Judge.
Even with Judge always dominating the conversation around the Yankees’ most sacred cows, Bleacher Report MLB analyst Joel Reuter made a compelling case this week that Cam Schlittler is actually the single most irreplaceable asset New York possesses, even though he’s made only 26 major league starts, including two in last year’s postseason.
Schlittler’s Case for Untouchable Status
Schlittler’s 2026 numbers make it easy to see why. The 25-year-old right-hander carries a 1.35 ERA and 0.783 WHIP through 60 innings across 10 starts this season, good for a 6-1 record and 2.8 bWAR. Those figures place him among the very best pitchers in the American League, and for that matter the major leagues. His ERA is currently MLB’s best, his bWAR places him third among pitchers and No. 7 among all players, and his 68 strikeouts rank Schlittler fifth.
Reuter called the Yankees’ second-year stud the “AL version of Paul Skenes,” a comparison that would have seemed laughable when Schlittler was a seventh-round pick out of Northeastern University in 2022.
His path here was not an easy one. Schlittler worked through the Yankees’ system from 2023 to 2025 before the organization was forced to call him up on July 9 last year, when Clarke Schmidt went down for Tommy John surgery. In his debut against the Seattle Mariners, the 6-foot-6 native of Walpole, Massachusetts, struck out seven across 5 1/3 innings.
His rookie season ended with a 4-3 record, 2.96 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 73 innings. But the moment that cemented his status came in October 2025, when Schlittler delivered eight dominant innings against the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series, punching out 12 batters and sending New York to the Division Series.
Reuter also pointed to the contract situation as critical to the untouchable designation. Schlittler remains under team control through 2031, handing the Yankees five additional seasons of cost-controlled, frontline starting pitching after 2026.
Schlittler Made Himself Better Before 2026
Schlittler appeared on the YES Network in December to reveal he was working on a sixth pitch, either a changeup or splitter, to neutralize left-handed hitters.
“I’m probably more leaning toward a changeup, which might be easier for me,” Schlittler said, according to MLB.com‘s Bryan Hoch. “I think that’s an important pitch to include, just because I didn’t have that option down to lefties.”
Coming into 2026, his arsenal already featured three fastball variations â a four-seamer averaging 98 mph, a sinker and a cutter, plus a curveball and a sweeper. Veterans Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón helped him correct a pitch-tipping flaw that surfaced during his rookie year, which also accelerated Schlittler’s development.
The result in 2026 has been a pitcher who looks less like a second-year starter still finding his footing and more like a genuine ace.
“You’ve got Hall of Famers in there, Cy Young winners,” Schlittler said, as quoted by MLB.com. “I have a lot of resources to go talk to these people, where I’m just trying to get better. They want me to get better, because we just want to win games.”
At 25 years old, with a 1.35 ERA and a star-making postseason already etched into his growing legend, Schlittler is not going anywhere. Reuter’s case is clear: He is the one New York Yankee no rival front office is getting its hands on.
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