Yankees pitching prospect Cam Schlittler to make MLB debut on Wednesday

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Jul 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — The Yankees have made it official: Cam Schlittler will make his big league debut when he starts against the Mariners in the Bronx on Wednesday.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed the expected news during his weekly appearance on the Talkin’ Yanks podcast. Meanwhile, pitching coach Matt Blake wasn’t sure if this will be an extended audition for Schlittler after previously using the phrase “spot start” to describe his promotion.

“Definitely an opportunity to get some run, but I don’t think we’ve committed to that yet,” Blake told the New York Daily News. “Let’s get the first one under our belt and go from there.”

Schlittler’s call-up follows the loss of Clarke Schmidt, who is expected to undergo Tommy John surgery. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Yankees ultimately fill his spot in the rotation — which also includes a past-his-prime Marcus Stroman and a still-developing Will Warren — with an external addition before the trade deadline, though Luis Gil is also expected back from a lat injury.

For now, Schlittler will get at least one chance to shine in The Show after a few impressive months.

The righty, Baseball America’s second-best Yankees prospect, wowed the organization during his first big league camp in the spring. A 2.38 ERA and 64 strikeouts over 53 innings at Double-A recently earned him a promotion to Triple-A.

Schlittler posted a 3.80 ERA and 35 strikeouts over 23 2/3 innings at Triple-A. While he faltered in his last start, surrendering six earned runs over 2 1/3 innings, the Yankees are high on the 24-year-old.

“We really liked his competitive nature,” Blake said. “We got to see quite a few outings in spring training going against some A lineups, somewhat by design and somewhat by just circumstances. So it kind of worked out that he had four or five starts against some regular lineups. And then I think the big thing is he’s got a quality fastball he can lean on as an anchor to his arsenal. And then he’s got a couple different breaking balls that he mixes in to lefties and righties. So he can attack two different sides of the plate.”

The Yankees have more experienced options in Carlos Carrasco and Allan Winans at Triple-A, but they have pitched poorly in the majors this year. They also have below-average stuff.

Because of that and some injuries, the Yankees are turning to Schlittler a bit sooner than they’d like to.

“It’s probably always a little bit sooner. More often than not, it usually comes that way,” Blake said, generally referring to the promotion of pitching prospects. “I mean, [Schlittler’s] only had five starts in Triple-A. So you’d like to see a little bit more, but at the same time, he’s been throwing the ball well in Double-A and Triple-A.

“Ultimately, we kind of know who he is, so we feel a little more comfortable with that.”