Yankees ace Cam Schlittler added to his American League Cy Young case Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, throwing six shutout innings against the crosstown rival Mets (NYY 2, NYM 0). Schlittler struck out eight and allowed one hit. He is tied with Jacob Misiorowski with a 1.95 ERA, lowest among qualified pitchers, and also with 6.0 WAR, best among all pitchers.
"I think valuable is a good word. He might be the MVP, too," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday's game (via MLB.com). Just an awesome season and hopefully there's a lot left in the tank." The AL Cy Young race is between Schlittler and Dylan Cease, with Parker Messick and Drew Rasmussen trying to nudge their way in as the third finalist.
The AL MVP race is more wide open. Yordan Alvarez has hit an un-MVP-like .238/.375/.393 over the last calendar month and his Triple Crown chances are fading, opening the door for Schlittler and others. Here are the AL WAR leaderboards entering play Monday: McGonigle and Witt play for teams that will miss the postseason, something that has historically hurt players in the MVP voting.
As good as Cease has been -- he held the Orioles to one run in five innings Sunday -- he's not having a transcendant "pitcher who deserves to win MVP" season. Schlittler may not be either! He's more in that conversation than Cease though.
One player not on either WAR leaderboard who will factor into the AL MVP race: Rays third baseman Junior Caminero. He's just out of frame (sixth in FanGraphs WAR and eighth in Baseball Reference WAR), but he leads the American League with 40 homers, and he is the best player on the league's best team. That always equals MVP support.
Schlittler has a strong statistical MVP case and probably the best case narratively. He has been the rock in New York's rotation while Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodón all missed time with the injury. Also, Aaron Judge missed three months with a broken rib, putting even more pressure on Schlittler (and the team's other pitchers), and he delivered every which way.
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