00:00Joel Sherman back with three things that are on my mind. I'm in Tampa, was here for the weekend,
00:08saw the Yankees play a couple of games, and today in the New York Post I wrote about Cam Schlittler
00:17with just the idea that I'm not sure that in my 40 years of doing this I've seen anybody come
00:23this far this fast from where he was, what the perception of him was even say 12 months ago
00:30to where he is now and what that can mean, the implications for this rotation now and moving
00:37forward and potentially even maybe in October. So why don't we open three things with the rise.
00:43Cam Schlittler was a seventh round draft pick in 2022 when he was drafted. Matt Blake was very
00:51familiar. They're both from the Boston area. He knew of him going back to even high school.
00:58He's very friendly with the scout in the area, Matt Hyde of the Yankees, who was pushing for
01:04Schlittler, but thought of Schlittler as a quote-unquote common right-hander when he was drafted.
01:12And even Schlittler, when I talked to him, he said, that guy, and I'm using his words, sucked.
01:20Then he even said the guy who started opening day for the AA Somerset Patriots last year sucked.
01:28And he said that he even feels different today than he felt when he got promoted in last July
01:33to the Yankees. So he made this move along the way. I asked a bunch of people with the Yankees
01:39and Schlittler himself what was the key. Schlittler came in at about 199 pounds. He steadily is put on
01:45weight. He said he was too heavy at about 225. He says pitching at 215 to 218 is the, you
01:51know,
01:52his best weight. That's where he's been for about a year now. Matt Blake made a big deal about the
01:58gains made in the weight room in the efficiency of moving his body better. And 92-94 has become
02:06pretty consistently 95-98. And he added a cutter, which he was throwing at 95 miles per hour in his
02:16last start. His curveball has gotten a lot better. He's differentiated a slider from a cutter. He,
02:25you know, he's throwing a sinker, a four-seamer, and a cutter. That's three different fastballs that
02:29you could use to both lefties and righties. It's really been a remarkable change and upgrade in his
02:37repertoire since draft and even since this time last year and where it was. And that's, and that's kind
02:45of, you know, been key to where, where he's gotten. And where has he gotten? Why don't we talk about
02:51number two? Yankees might not make the playoffs without him last year. They, you know, let's remember
02:58where they began as we even think about this rotation now. There's Carlos Carrasco. There's
03:02Marcus Stroman. That's who's in the rotation last year. They're taking a lot of starts.
03:07Guys get hurt along the way. Cole misses the season. Schmidt misses a good deal of it.
03:12Luis Hill misses a good deal of it. You know, essentially it's Warren, Freed, Rodan carrying the
03:19rotation. And about July, Yankee officials are knowing they're going to have to be very busy,
03:25and they were at the July trade deadline. And the reality is that they ended up not trading for
03:32starter because they kept watching Schlittler, now promoted to AAA, and thinking his stuff was going
03:39to translate better than anyone they could find on the market. And they acquired him. And he ended up
03:44having a high two ERA, pitching very well for the last two months of the regular season. And it got
03:51particularly good over his last four starts. It's like he's a little bit of an AI program. He keeps
03:57getting better and better as things go along. And he got to the point where he was a trusted starter.
04:06He got game three of the wildcard series, eight shutout innings, 12 strikeouts against the Red Sox was
04:12his tour de force. And even in the next round, when he pitched a little worse, it was still better
04:17against Toronto than pretty much anyone else. And then we get here this spring. He's had two starts.
04:25As I'm speaking to you, it's Monday morning. At 11am today, he's throwing a simulated game at
04:32Steinbrenner Field. He's pretty much lined up to start game two. And I sat with multiple scouts
04:40yesterday at lunch. And they all were raving about him, and particularly his last start against
04:50Toronto against the Blue Jays. Now, obviously, it wasn't the Blue Jays A lineup. Some of that is at
04:56the World Baseball Classic, like Vladimir Guerrero. It's also that time of year, you don't get the A
05:00lineup every day. But one of the scouts said, it's like, for three innings, you can't throw better
05:06than he threw. Another pointed out, like, don't don't lose the importance of his confidence in
05:14his stuff. But the guy said, if I had that stuff, I'd be pretty confident in it as well, and
05:18is
05:18willing to his ability to win, throwing the ball over the plate. He's no trickster, though he has
05:25trickster pitches, he could win over the plate, and he's willing to go there. Against the Blue Jays,
05:32it was three and two-thirds inning, six strikeouts, a run, no walks, two hits, and a first inning in
05:38which he threw 10 pitches, nine strikes, and struck out three guys. And again, to a man, the scouts were
05:44like, it's the best stuff we saw this spring training. So why don't we go to number three?
05:49What does that all mean? There is some questions about how the Yankees open the season with their
05:57rotation. They play, they have four off days in the first 13 days of the season. And I, if I
06:05were
06:06trying to think along with them, I think that they're going to go to a four-man rotation for that
06:10two-weekish period until they truly need a fifth guy. I think at this point, Luis Heal has probably
06:18pitched himself out of that group. He has not been good this spring, including on Sunday against the
06:24Tigers. He gave up three homers in three innings. His fastball is still not to the peak. It was when
06:29he was on his way to winning rookie of the year in 2024. His changeup was not good. But Aaron
06:38Boone
06:38indicated that he was going to make the road, make the staff. He has an option left. And I think
06:46the
06:47Yankees don't want to fire that option, his last option, unless they absolutely have to. And maybe
06:52they'll have to, maybe he'll pitch himself off the staff in April. And by the time late in the month
06:57or early next month, when Carlos Rodon is ready to return and they're figuring out in this game of
07:02Survivor, which starter does it stick around, it's possible it will be Hill. I would think
07:08Weathers is the other one. He was really, really good in his first start. It has not been nearly as
07:14good the last couple of starts. So, but the one thing that seems certain is Frieda's opening day
07:22and Schlittler is in the rotation and seems to be lined up to start game two of the season against
07:29San Francisco. And look, most guys, Major League Baseball, I always point this out, is hard. I'm old
07:38enough to have covered Kevin Moss, Shane Spencer, some other guys who were meteors, you know, going
07:45across the Yankee sky, and they burned out quickly. So you always need to be careful about just how good
07:51somebody is going to be. But there's a universality to what folks think of Schlittler when they're
07:57watching him. There is a little bit of a young Garrett Cole vibe. That is pretty heady. Even if he
08:05is a
08:05really good number three starter, what a draft pick that is. That's a seventh round draft pick.
08:11That goes a long way if you're able to do it. But the Yankees are dreaming about a high stuff,
08:18high end rotation that is able to carry them all season, but then also is a difference maker
08:24in October. That would be Garrett Cole coming all the way back from Tommy John surgery. And again,
08:31the Yankees are probably hoping that's a late May, early June. I watched him throw a batting
08:36practice. I'm sorry, a bullpen yesterday. Anthony Volpe stood in for some of it. He looked like
08:44Garrett Cole. What does that mean when it's not game action and you're still barely, he's just
08:49reached a 12 month mark. I don't know, but the stuff looks good. Rodan's stuff looks good as he comes
08:56back from a cleanup of his elbow. Max Fried looks like Max Fried. Could they get Weathers to a pretty
09:02high end? Does somebody like Carlos LeGrandje or Elmer Rodriguez ultimately factor into this
09:13along the line? To me, the next key is Schlittler. If this is just hinting at who he is and
09:21it's real,
09:21it is a huge difference maker. It is a top of the rotation starter. And let's put it this way.
09:28He now believes he doesn't suck. He said that. He said, bring the doubters on. I expect that when
09:34we look back, and he used the month October, he said, when we look back in October, I'll have done
09:40a lot of really, really terrific things. It's a guy to watch because the upside from especially where he
09:47was is spectacular.
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