Cam Schlittler earned a spot on the All-MLB First Team and Ben Rice was named to the Second Team on Wednesday, adding national recognition to breakout 2026 seasons for the New York Yankees teammates.
Schlittler was selected as a starting pitcher after unanimously winning the American League Cy Young Award. Rice received the Second Team designated hitter honor, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. The selections were announced during the MLB Awards show at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Schlittler finishes with AL’s lowest ERA
In his first full major league season, Schlittler went 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts. His ERA led the American League, ranked second in the majors and was the lowest by a qualified Yankees pitcher since Ron Guidry’s 1.74 mark during his 1978 Cy Young season.
Schlittler allowed one run or fewer in 21 starts, the most in the majors and a Yankees franchise record. His 6.2 wins above replacement, as calculated by FanGraphs, tied for second among major league pitchers. He also held opponents to a .244 on-base percentage, best in the AL and third in the majors.
The Yankees selected Schlittler in the seventh round of the 2022 draft out of Northeastern University. His strong season followed a standout performance against Boston in the 2025 AL Wild Card Series.
Despite those results, Schlittler told MLB.com he believes the label of ace requires sustained success over several seasons, pointing to teammates Gerrit Cole and Max Fried as examples.
The other First Team starting pitchers were Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, Atlanta’s Chris Sale, Toronto’s Dylan Cease and Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez. Misiorowski also won his league’s Cy Young Award unanimously.
Rice’s 41 home runs lead Yankees
Rice hit a team-leading 41 home runs while batting .264 with a .363 on-base percentage and .534 slugging percentage in 154 games. He added 24 doubles and drove in 97 runs.
That home run total put Rice alongside Joe DiMaggio and Aaron Judge as the only Yankees to hit at least 40 homers in a season within their first three major league seasons, according to MLB.com.
Rice finished third in the majors in slugging percentage and fourth in OPS at .897. His 16 game-winning RBIs also ranked fourth, while his 69 extra-base hits were sixth. Houston’s Yordan Alvarez received the First Team designated hitter selection.
A 12th-round pick out of Dartmouth in 2021, Rice grew up rooting for the Yankees in Massachusetts. He and Schlittler were signed by the same Yankees scout and attended their first All-Star Game together in Philadelphia this July.
“It’s a long season. I think you can find success by just being consistent every day,” Rice told MLB.com.
Established in 2019, the All-MLB Awards recognize regular-season performance across the full season. Each team includes a designated hitter, three outfielders, five starting pitchers, two relievers and selections at the remaining positions. Fans were invited to vote at MLB.com to help choose the honorees.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.