Forget the Cy Young race for a sec: Cam Schlittler isn’t just pitching like the best hurler in the American League, he’s actually building a legit MVP case right now. Seriously. Regular readers know we’ve been locked into one of the tightest Cy Young battles in forever between Schlittler and the Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease, but things just got interesting on another level.
Schlittler Pulls Ahead for Cy Young, Then Goes for More
We finally got some separation in that Cy Young race this week. Cease got touched up for four runs in just five innings against the Athletics on Monday. Then, Schlittler went out Tuesday against the Rockies and allowed only a solo shot through seven dominant frames. That was the game. Cam has crept just ahead by fWAR, and he’s got a considerable lead in bWAR. Right now, I think he’d top most voters’ Cy Young ballots. But the wild part? That same night, as Aaron Judge returned to the lineup, it hit me: Schlittler isn’t just the Cy Young favorite, he’s actually built himself a legitimate MVP case. Think about it: no pitcher has won that award since Clayton Kershaw did it for the 2014 Dodgers. In the AL, you have to go all the way back to 2011 with Justin Verlander.
How He Stacks Up Against the Hitting Giants
So, who’s in the mix for MVP? Yordan Alvarez is chasing the first Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera, Bobby Witt Jr. is probably the best overall player in the league, and Junior Caminero is leading the AL in homers for a Rays team that’s basically running on “devil magic.” And yet, here’s the thing: Cam stacks up fairly against all three of them!
Take Yordan Alvarez, who I figure has the inside track right now. Schlittler is only 0.1 fWAR back, which is basically nothing, and more than three-quarters of a win better by bWAR. Alvarez’s whole candidacy is built around that Triple Crown hunt, being the best hitter in baseball, and dragging what we all thought was a finally-deflated Houston Astros team to a division title. Crappy AL West or not, that’s an MVP blueprint. But should Alvarez not snag that Triple Crown, he loses a bit of his case.
Then there’s Bobby Witt Jr., whose MVP claim is undercut by how many games he’s actually played. He leads position players in fWAR and bWAR, but he’s only logged 128 games. His 18 homers and 124 wRC+ are solid, but a lot of his MVP argument comes from parts of his game beyond just hitting. All that and the fact that the Royals are so bad work against him for end of season awards, and Bobby seems cursed to be the Dave Stieb of shortstops. Junior Caminero, fittingly, is the junior candidate here, clearly trailing the rest of the field by WAR. His AL-leading 39 homers and the Rays’ season of “devil magic” help cover some of those gaps.
The race for AL MVP is suddenly way more interesting than we thought, and Cam Schlittler is right in the thick of it. Can a pitcher actually snag this thing in 2026? We’re about to find out.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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