Yankees' Cam Schlittler didn't always care about baseball. Now he's the AL Cy Young.

NEW YORK — Standing tall in Fenway Park’s visiting clubhouse, not too far from where he grew up, Cam Schlittler reflected on his childhood and high school years.

He recalled not being all that great at baseball, or all that interested. The way he remembers it, he was at the “bottom of the totem pole” on his AAU team when he was 12, and more drawn to the physicality of football as he grew up. Admittedly, he wasn’t patient enough to love the mental rigors of America’s pastime, especially on the mound.

“I really didn’t care that much about baseball when I was younger,” the Yankees’ emerging ace said in June. “I don’t think I realized how much potential I had.”

Fast forward to present day, and that potential has been realized — by Schlittler and the rest of the baseball world.

The 25-year-old, fresh off his first full season in the majors, won the American League Cy Young on Wednesday night. While Toronto’s Dylan Cease and Cleveland’s Parker Messick were also finalists, Schlittler ran away with the trophy, earning unanimous coronation after leading the AL with a 1.95 ERA and 6.2 fWAR.

The right-hander also went 14-6 with 239 strikeouts over 33 starts and 193 2/3 innings, and his 2.56 FIP tied with Cease for the league lead.

“He’s a stud,” Aaron Boone said of Schlittler, who is also expected to receive down-ballot MVP votes on Thursday.

“He’s been a godsend,” Brian Cashman added.

So how did Schlittler go from a disinterested pre-teen to one of baseball’s best pitchers?

Well, the growth spurt — Schlittler is now a wiry 6-6, 215 pounds — he enjoyed his freshman year at Walpole High School certainly helped. But even then, he didn’t take baseball seriously, or realize the talent that he possessed, until after he played summer ball with varsity players before his sophomore year.

Schlittler — and the Yankees — can thank his father, John, for the breakthrough.

“My dad’s always been pushing me. You listen to those things sometimes, you just kind of block it out. You’re like, ‘Eh, I just don’t want to deal with this,’ or ‘he’s on my ass,’ ” Schlittler said of his pops, a police chief in Needham, Mass. “He would bring that up every day, or every other day, or whatever scenario it was. We’d have a conversation. It’d be about nothing, and it’d turn into something. I credit him for kind of staying on me and pushing me in the right direction. But when you’re younger, you don’t really realize how important that really was.”

As Schlittler became an upperclassman in high school and then a collegiate athlete at Northeastern University, his dad’s reminders resonated more and more. His work ethic gradually improved, though not without some bumps in the road.

The summer before college, Schlittler had to stop playing in the Futures League because his body wasn’t ready for the workload. The decision worked out, as he said he hit the weight room and put on 40 pounds.

And even as Schlittler positioned himself as a seventh-round pick of the Yankees in 2022, he acknowledged that he should have “put more effort in” as a college junior.

“There’s some guys that I look at their work ethic in college, and I’m like, ‘If I had their work ethic, I think I would have been in a better spot for the draft,’ ” Schlittler said. “But I got into the system and made sure I didn’t make any of those mistakes, and that’s kind of why I’m at where I’m at right now.”

Indeed, Schlittler began his pro career with a well-documented chip on his shoulder, but also enough self-awareness that he had to hold himself to a higher standard. If he wanted to reach the majors, never mind thrive, he knew he couldn’t just skate by on skill.

“He had such a growth mindset to learn and improve that it allowed him to take off,” said Matt Hyde, the Yankees scout credited with discovering Schlittler. “There’s a lot of players who think they’ve already arrived, and they stay exactly what they are. Not him.”

To Hyde’s point, Schlittler soared through the Yankees’ minor league system as he continued to grow, mentally and physically. He tweaked his arsenal — he primarily relies on three fastball variants — got his velocity up to triple digits, dove into the Yankees’ endless analytical and mental conditioning resources, and debuted to the tune of a 2.96 ERA over 14 regular season starts as a rookie last year. Then came a dazzling performance in Game 3 of the 2025 wild-card series against his hometown Red Sox.

The outing served as Schlittler’s coming out party, and a precursor to his ascendance this past season.

“He bought into everything that we were selling, from strength and conditioning to pitch profiling,” Cashman said, “and he just turned himself into a beast with his work ethic and desire to be great.”

“He’s been just remarkably consistent,” Gerrit Cole, the Yankees’ last Cy Young winner, chimed in. “He’s very good at that. I don’t know necessarily how he does it, but his outcome, his process, are good.”

Now Schlittler is the author of one of the greatest seasons by a pitcher in Yankees history. He has joined Bob Turley (1958), Whitey Ford (1961), Sparky Lyle (1977), Ron Guidry (1978), Roger Clemens (2001) and Cole (2023) on the franchise’s list of Cy Young winners.

The award is a testament not just to the season he had, but the years of work and maturation that preceded it.

“I’ve come to truly appreciate how much Cam wants to be the best version of himself,” Hyde said. “He’s never satisfied. He has a hunger to learn and find ways to be better. I think it comes from his upbringing and having to always earn things in life. He certainly hasn’t been handed anything along his journey, and even with how great he did in 2026, he’s already figuring out ways to be even greater in 2027, which to me is the mark of a true championship-type player.”