The New York Yankees have suffered some key injuries throughout the season, and Cam Schlittler has been a huge reason they have been able to weather the storm.
Schlittler is the American League Cy Young Award favorite, and on Sunday he delivered another quality start, allowing no runs in six innings. Schlittler leads the American League in bWAR, leads all of baseball in ERA and has 228 strikeouts. His manager thinks the Cy Young Award is not the only award he should win.
"I think valuable is a good word. He might be the MVP, too,” manager Aaron Boone said, per MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. “He’s been awesome. Just an awesome season, and hopefully there’s a lot left in the tank.”
Yordan Alvarez, Junior Caminero and Bobby Witt Jr. may be ahead of the Yankees ace in MVP discussions, but Schlittler certainly deserves to be considered. The Yankees have the second-best record in the American League, despite missing Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Max Fried for big chunks of the season.
The last pitcher to win MVP was Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Kershaw was 26 years old in 2015, and Schlittler is 25 right now. Schlittler is on pace to clear Kershaw's innings and strikeout mark from his MVP season. Kershaw posted a 1.77 ERA in 2014. Schlittler should finish with a sub-2.00 ERA as well, with a chance to have the best ERA in all of baseball.
Kershaw started just 27 games in his MVP year. Schlittler is already up to 31 starts. He is a long shot to win the award, still, but his manager makes a good point. It's hard to argue there has been a more valuable player than Schlittler in the American League.