Cam Schlittler has taken the ball like a Game 1 starter, and Ben Rice has carried a lineup that spent much of the season waiting for reinforcements. With the Yankees heading into a weekend set against the Diamondbacks and the postseason picture tightening, two Massachusetts products have become central to the club’s hopes of hosting a Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium rather than traveling to Fenway Park.
Schlittler, the Walpole native and Northeastern product, has emerged as New York’s most reliable arm. Rice, from Cohasset on the South Shore, has supplied the thunder through injuries to Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Neither arrived with the billing of the Yankees’ established stars, but both have given the club its clearest path through a bruising regular season.
Schlittler took over the rotation
- Schlittler opened the year by carrying a shutout into the sixth inning against the Giants in March, striking out eight in that outing.
- He followed with a 1.73 ERA in April and a 1.48 mark in May, establishing himself before the rotation’s health issues fully piled up.
- His only monthly ERA above 3.00 came in June, at 3.38, before he answered with a 1.93 ERA in July and 2.33 in August.
- Through the early part of September, Schlittler had posted a 0.86 ERA, bringing his season line to 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA entering his final regular-season starts.
Those numbers matter even more because the Yankees have had to navigate injuries to Carlos Rodón and Max Fried. Gerrit Cole arrived late in the season and has not recently looked like the version of himself that once owned the Cy Young conversation. Schlittler has filled the void, becoming the staff’s ace and the logical choice to open a postseason series.
The right-hander will not match Ron Guidry’s famous 25-3 season and 1.74 ERA from nearly five decades ago. Still, Schlittler has become the first young, homegrown Yankees power pitcher since Guidry to dominate at this level. The Yankees selected Schlittler in the seventh round of the 2022 Draft, and his rise has changed the shape of their October outlook.
Rice kept the offense standing
Rice’s season has been no less important on the other side of the clubhouse. Judge missed more than 80 games with a fractured rib cage, and even after returning to hit his first home run in months, he exited a recent game against the Twins because of lower-leg discomfort. Any further Judge availability comes with real uncertainty.
Bellinger, the club’s second-most valuable hitter a year ago, also spent time on the injured list. He has been productive since returning, batting .344 with five homers and 18 RBIs over his last 22 games. Luis García Jr. arrived from the Nationals at the Trade Deadline to provide additional support. Before those pieces settled in, though, Rice was the hitter around whom New York’s offense had to operate while it stayed in front of the Red Sox and tried to keep pace with the Rays.
Entering the Diamondbacks series, Rice had 38 home runs and remained within reach of 100 RBIs. He has hit from every part of the order, from leadoff through cleanup, while enduring the ordinary rough patches of a young hitter. He batted .196 in June and .184 in August, yet has still been the club’s most essential offensive performer.
His work against left-handed pitching has improved as well. Rice entered the weekend with a .254 average, 10 home runs and 29 RBIs against lefties over the full season.
A rare homegrown power chase
Rice was a 12th-round Yankees selection in the 2021 Draft. If he reaches 40 home runs, he would join exceptionally limited company among Yankees developed by the organization. Over the past 75 years, only Mickey Mantle and Judge have been homegrown Yankees to hit 40 or more in a season.
Alex Rodriguez reached 57 in one Yankees season, and Alfonso Soriano made two runs at 40 homers more than 20 years ago, but both arrived from outside the Yankees’ domestic draft pipeline. Rice’s chase is different. It would put a late-round pick alongside two of the organization’s defining hitters.
Manager Aaron Boone saw the promise early. His first close look at Rice came in spring training of 2024, when Boone recognized quickly that the left-handed hitter had something unusual. This season, Boone said, Rice has pushed that impression further and is developing into one of the game’s top hitters.
Rice has kept a quieter perspective. With the regular season unfinished and the postseason still ahead, he said there is little point in judging the year yet. There are more games to play, he noted, and a long road still waiting.
That is the Yankees’ immediate reality. Schlittler has put a postseason starter’s stamp on the rotation. Rice has put 38 balls over the fence while the lineup around him has changed repeatedly. If New York earns the right to open October in the Bronx, the two New England products will be a large reason why.
