The two most valuable Yankees this season are a starting pitcher named Cam Schlittler, from Walpole, Mass., and Northeastern University, a school within walking distance of Fenway Park, and Ben Rice, who comes out of Cohasset, Mass., on the state’s South Shore, about 30 miles from Fenway. If the Yankees are hosting a Wild Card Series against the Red Sox in less than two weeks -- at Yankee Stadium and not Fenway -- Schlittler and Rice will be the biggest reasons.
Schlittler ought to win the AL Cy Young Award and ought to be an MVP candidate for the whole league. David Cone, now a Yankees broadcaster for the YES network and once a great Yankee himself, has one word to describe what he’s seen from Schlittler this season:
“Nails.”
Here’s a breakdown of Schlittler’s ERA, month by month after one start in March, when, of course, he threw a shutout (eight strikeouts) into the sixth inning against the Giants:
1.73 in April
1.48 in May
3.38 in June
1.93 in July
2.33 in August
0.86 so far in September
Carlos Rodón got hurt. Max Fried got hurt. Gerrit Cole joined the season late, and he hasn’t looked like his own Cy Young self lately. It is been Schlittler who has been the Yankees' ace, who is their Game 1 guy, who has carried the staff. He is not going to end up with a 25-3 record and an ERA of 1.74 the way Ron Guidry did nearly 50 years ago. But Schlittler is at 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA going into his last few starts of the regular season. He has been the first young power starter out of the Yankees’ system since Guidry to be this good, and this dominant.
But Rice has been just as important to their offense.
In a season when Aaron Judge was gone for more than 80 games because of a fracture to his rib cage. Then, after Judge finally got back into the lineup and even hit his first home run in months, he left a game against the Twins the other day because of pain in his lower leg. It is why you have to believe, if and when Judge is back in the lineup again, he’s going to be a swing and a prayer the rest of the way.
So No. 99 went away. So did Cody Bellinger, the Yankees’ second-most important hitter a year ago, before he finally returned from the IL. But even when the Yankees struggled to score runs, and even in a roller-coaster year that saw Rice hit just .196 in June and .184 in August, it is Rice who has been the Yankees' hitting star, coming into a weekend series against the Diamondbacks with 38 home runs and still with a chance to knock in 100.
Luis García Jr. showed up from the Nationals at the Trade Deadline to give him some backup. Bellinger has been on a heater since coming off the IL, with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .344 average over his last 22 games. But it was Rice around whom the Yankees built what offense they had before all that, while they were staying ahead of the Red Sox and at least maintaining contact with the Rays.
You know how many homegrown Yankees have hit 40 or more home runs in a season in the last 75 years? Two. One was named Mickey Mantle and the other is Judge. There have been other Yankees sluggers who got to 40 and beyond. Alex Rodriguez once made it all the way to 57. But they all came from somewhere else. Rice is the same as Schlittler: He hasn’t just come to this moment from New England, he’s someone the Yankees drafted in the 12th round of the 2021 Draft (Schlittler was out of the seventh round the following year).
Alfonso Soriano made his own run at 40 more than 20 years ago. Did it twice. But Soriano came to the Yankees as a free agent from Japan. So think about the company Rice will be keeping if does get to 40 homers, starting with his chance this weekend against the Diamondbacks:
Mantle. Judge.
Here is something Rice’s manager, Aaron Boone, has said about him:
"I got my first taste of him in Spring Training of '24, and it was like, 'Oh, OK.' But then this year, it's gone to even another level.”
Here is something else:
“I think he's turning into one of the best hitters in the league."
Rice himself has predictably low-keyed what he’s done for the Yankees so far.
"The year is still in progress, you know?” he said. “It's still going on. We've got more games to play and a long road ahead, so I can't really look back and assess it fully yet."
It really has been a roller-coaster ride occasionally. He has struggled occasionally against left-handed pitchers, but his season-long average against them stands at .254 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs.
We know what Schlittler’s numbers are. Rice’s, though, can get a little lost sometimes. But in a year where he’s batted everywhere from leadoff to cleanup, when Judge was gone for more than half the time, he has been indispensable, too. And still has a shot to be a 40-homer guy for the Yankees.