You want to be cautious because Major League Baseball is incredibly difficult, and in many ways, Cam Schlittler’s arc does not make sense. As a seventh-round draft pick who appeared on zero top prospect lists, he is now quickly imitating prime Gerrit Cole.
You want to slow down heady comparisons because 16 regular-season starts into their careers, you will find even better ERAs than Schlittler’s 2.55 over the last three decades belonging to forgettables such as Dereck Rodríguez and Taylor Jungmann.
But it is difficult to watch Schlittler and not envision what could be — for him and the Yankees. A year ago at this time, Schlittler did not really have a cutter. Now he is throwing something that looks like vintage Mariano Rivera, vicious and hard to square at 94 mph to go along with among the majors’ best four-seam fastballs and sinkers — not to mention an improving slider and curve.
It speaks to a Terminator-esque quality about Schlittler. He can’t, and then he can. He has control issues, and then opens this season with two starts and 11 ²/₃ walk-less innings.
