Aaron Judge did not dismiss Cam Schlittler’s season when the Yankees’ MVP conversation started to swell. He just drew a line between two awards that have long lived in the same neighborhood but mean different things.
That distinction has now picked up some heavyweight support.
Former Braves ace and Hall of Famer John Smoltz backed Judge’s logic during an appearance on Ben Verlander’s “Flippin’ Bats” podcast, saying, “I understand what Aaron is saying,” and giving the Yankees captain another prominent ally in a debate that has only gotten louder as Schlittler keeps rolling through September.
The conversation kicked up after Schlittler shut down the Mets on Sept. 13 at Yankee Stadium. When asked whether the right-hander belonged in the American League MVP discussion, Judge praised him, but he also made it clear where he stood on the award split.
“He’s definitely pitching like an MVP, but they’ve got a Cy Young Award for a reason - best pitcher in the game,” Judge said. “So he’s got my vote, definitely, for the Cy Young.”
That answer stood out because some of Judge’s teammates were willing to go further. Aaron Boone said Schlittler “might be the MVP, too,” while Cody Bellinger pointed to Clayton Kershaw’s 2014 National League MVP season as proof that a dominant pitcher can absolutely live in that conversation.
Judge’s point was not a knock on Schlittler. It was more of a line in the sand: elite pitching deserves its own award, and the Cy Young exists for exactly that reason.
Smoltz, who knows the weight of an ace’s workload as well as anyone, said he understood that thinking. His explanation centered on the different demands of a pitcher versus a position player. Starters only take the ball once every five days, and in Smoltz’s view, that makes it harder for them to lead a team in the same daily way an everyday player can.
He pointed to his own Braves teams as an exception, saying Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Smoltz gave Atlanta an unusual amount of leadership from the rotation. But his larger argument was straightforward: most championship teams still need a position player who is there every day and becomes the clubhouse’s central voice.
That is why Smoltz could see Judge’s argument without seeing it as a slight. A pitcher can be the best pitcher in the league and still not be the player a captain has in mind when he thinks about MVP value.
Of course, pitchers have won both awards before. Kershaw did it in 2014 after going 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA, and Justin Verlander pulled off the same feat in the American League in 2011.
So Judge’s view is less about whether a pitcher can ever win MVP and more about how the awards should be defined. It is a philosophical split, and it comes from two people with real authority in the discussion: Judge, a three-time MVP, and Smoltz, a Cy Young winner and one of the most accomplished postseason pitchers of his era.
Meanwhile, Schlittler keeps making the argument harder to ignore.
The 25-year-old entered Sunday with a 14-6 record, an AL-best 1.94 ERA over 190 2/3 innings, a 0.91 WHIP and 234 strikeouts. Opponents were batting just .184 against him, and he led the American League in ERA and innings while sitting near the top of several other major pitching categories.
Even in Saturday’s 5-3 walk-off loss to Arizona, Schlittler added to his case. He allowed three runs in six innings, but only one was earned. He gave up three hits, walked three and struck out six, and his ERA actually dropped from 1.95 to 1.94 despite taking a no-decision.
So as the regular season heads into its final week, the questions are pretty clean. Has Schlittler been the American League’s best pitcher?
The numbers say yes. And should that kind of season put him in the MVP race against everyday hitters?
That is where the divide lives.
Judge has already answered one way. Smoltz has now backed him up.
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