Yankees' Cam Schlittler gets interesting MVP update from ESPN analyst

Yankees’ Cam Schlittler gets interesting MVP update from ESPN analyst originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The New York Yankees don’t have Aaron Judge tearing it up and contending for the AL MVP this season, and while Ben Rice has been great, his odds for the award are slim due to his lackluster value defensively.

But that doesn’t mean the Yankees don’t have someone in contention for the AL MVP award. ESPN analyst Bradford Doolittle does have an advanced statistic that has placed Cam Schlittler near the top of the MVP standings.

While it might still be a long shot for Schlittler to win the AL MVP, Doolittle’s “AXE” rating has Schlittler second only to Yordan Alvarez, and not by much, in the AL MVP race.

Cam Schlittler is currently No. 2 in the MVP ranking by an ESPN analyst

“Front-runner: Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros (146.9 AXE). Next nine: 2, Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees (143.0),” Doolittle writes.

While Doolittle noted that Schlittler has an “uphill battle” to winning the AL MVP, it’s not completely out of the question just yet.

With a lack of a true runaway favorite in the AL MVP race, even with Alvarez contending for the AL Triple Crown, Schlittler’s chances are much better than they normally might be.

He’s been dominant this season and is the favorite, according to Doolittle, to win the AL Cy Young Award. The MVP award is significantly more difficult for Schlittler to win, and it’d take a near-perfect set of circumstances for him to have a chance at this honor.

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In 31 starts this season, Schlittler has a 1.95 ERA and 7.1 bWAR. To win the AL MVP, he’d need to make at least one more start, likely a lengthy one without allowing a run, and to take the MLB ERA title, not just the AL ERA title.

Even if he were to pitch a perfect game in his final start of the year, he would need two other things to happen to win this AL MVP award.

The first would be for Alvarez to lose the Triple Crown while the Astros miss out on the playoffs. The other would be for Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays to have a terrible final few games of the year and drop the Rays out of the AL East lead.

All in all, it’s nearly impossible for Schlittler to end the 2026 season as the AL MVP. But considering that pitchers never have a chance for this award, the fact that Doolittle is even willing to name him as a candidate is a testament to how great he’s been this season.

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