New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler will toe the rubber to kickstart his club's wild-card series with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. If you've been paying attention for the last two seasons, you'd know that weirdly means more attention on his off-field exploits than his on-field dominance. Schlittler, for the uninitiated, has been absolutely dominant this season, pitching to a 1.95 ERA with 239 strikeouts and 49 walks to put himself in position to with the 2026 American League Cy Young Award.
It's no surprise considering how he burst onto the scene last season, capping off a whirlwind rookie season with back-to-back dominant playoff starts against Boston (8.0 IP, 0 ER) and the Toronto Blue Jays (6.1 IP, 2 ER). Schlittler also happened to grow up a fan of his now-rival while being raised in Walpole, Massachusetts -- which has influenced some back-and-forth with fans on the other side of the rivalry that once looked to be fun and games and now just feel awkward and forced. Schlittler has spent the majority of his big league career scanning social media for negative comments, which typically leads to him engaging before backing off and painting himself like the victim.
If you think we're being critical, perhaps take a look at his now-deleted post where he called a female member of a popular Red Sox podcast a "solid 4 with oversized sunglasses" after she called him "ugly," or when he spent weeks going back and forth with another female Red Sox fan regarding his postseason performance, or the story about Yankees director of organizational performance Chad Bohling showing the ace video clips of people dissing him. It's just kind of weird, but he insists it stops now.
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