They embraced the modern ethos of pitching from the moment they turned professional. And now Jacob Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler have proven the future of pitching has arrived.
Misiorowski, 24, and Schlittler, 25, won the National and American league Cy Young Awards, respectively, in balloting announced on Nov. 11. And in doing so, they made a certain kind of history: They are the youngest Cy Young-winning duo since 1985, when 20-year-old Dwight Gooden and 21-year-old Bret Saberhagen took home NL and AL honors.
Gooden and Saberhagen went on to excellent, World Series-winning careers, even if they could not sustain that level of dominance when they were barely or not quite old enough to legally drink. And their victories didn’t necessarily portend a changing of the guard in the pitching pantheon.
Yet, The Miz and Schlitt seemed to prove a point in making 30 and 33 starts, and consistently pitching deep into games for the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees, respectively.
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Schlittler’s fastball barely hit 88 mph coming out of Northeastern as a seventh-round pick in 2022. Misiorowski was in that same range when Brewers scouts pondered drafting him out of high school.
Yet both young men matured physically. Schlittler now packs 215 pounds on his 6-foot-6 frame, while Misiorowski is still a relative drink of water at 6-foot-7, 201 — but seemingly growing every day.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning in Game 5 of the World Series on Oct. 28 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Perhaps more important, they got drafted by clubs that were fantastic fits. Schlittler’s mechanics and repertoire were remade under a pitching department led by Sam Briend, a former Driveline director of pitching and now the senior voice among Yankee pitching staffers. One of Briend’s first hires, Preston Claiborne, came up the ladder with Schlittler and is now assistant pitching coach for the major league club.
Meanwhile, Misiorowski has exceeded the hopes Brewers scouts held when they projected he’d eventually top 100 mph. Try 105 mph.
The Miz threw 28 of the 35 hardest pitches in the major leagues this season, ranging from 104 to 105.5 mph. That’s great eye candy, but the numbers at the end of September are even better: 252 strikeouts with a 1.80 ERA, two of the seven major statistical categories in which Misiorowski led the major leagues.
Schlittler won his own ERA title, posting a 1.95 mark to lead the AL. And he pitched 193 2/3 innings, just shy of the 200-inning plateau that was once the bare minimum of quality production, yet just three pitchers exceeded this season.
"The game’s changing. And it’s going in the right direction," Schlittler told USA TODAY Sports on a conference call after he and Misiorowski were named Cy Young winners. "Both of us are able to utilize those tools and help ourselves in development in the game, and make quick adjustments.
"I was just happy to make all my starts and stay healthy all year. It was something I was able to do."
And for Schlittler to reach that mark in his first full season is an excellent sign he might yet resemble what we all considered an ace.
While baseball’s velocity revolution took hold, the big money and the season-ending hardware often remained the domain of old heads. In the previous five seasons, Cy Youngs were won by the likes of Robbie Ray (30 at the time), Justin Verlander (39), Gerrit Cole (32) and Chris Sale (35).
New York Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler reacts after being taken out of the game against the Boston Red Sox by manager Aaron Boone during the seventh inning in Game 1 of an AL Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 29 in New York.
The great Paul Skenes helped break that mold, finishing third as a rookie and winning it as a 23-year-old in 2025 with his 98-mph fastball and devastating sinker. He’s still intact, even if he ran into suboptimal performance this season.
Naturally, no one can predict the future, nor can they foresee what, if any, injuries might lie on the horizon for Schlittler and Misiorowski. After all, Tim Lincecum won consecutive Cy Youngs at 24 and 25, then toted a 5.18 ERA in 33 starts by the time he was 28.
But Lincecum was the Freak, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound rubber band whose body suggested it might not be able to withstand the pounding. His degenerative hip eventually confirmed as much.
The Miz and Schlittler are tanks, big enough to start at small forward for your area college basketball power. And for as high-maintenance as Misiorowski's body can be – he left multiple starts this year with leg maladies, including in the sixth inning of the World Series clincher – he stayed healthy for 30 starts plus four more in the postseason.
All of this less than a year after his June 2025 major league debut.
"It happened really quick," says Misiorowski of his rise through the minors, his debut and then this dream season in his first full trip around the circuit. "It’s crazy, the opportunity I got in front of me and being able to take a hold of that and run with it.
"It’s been a crazy year and a half. But it’s been fun."
With good health and fortune, that fun is just getting started for Misiorowski and Schlittler. For one year, they forced the Cy Young Awards to take a youthful turn that hadn’t been seen for 41 years. And that bodes well for a future that will hopefully be populated with similarly resilient and talented pitchers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers shrug their shoulders hearing that the New York Mets have a meeting scheduled next week in California with prized free-agent starter Tarik Skubal.
