MLB awards week reaches its finish line Wednesday night, when the AL and NL Cy Young winners and the All-MLB team selections are revealed. The Baseball Writers' Association of America will also hand out the AL and NL Reliever of the Year awards for the first time.
The closest watch is in the AL, where the question is not whether Cam Schlittler belongs in the conversation but whether he can run the table unanimously. Schlittler, a seventh-round pick out of Northeastern University in 2022, has gone from a little-known name to the center of the Cy Young Award 2026 discussion after the Yankees helped develop him into a frontline starter.
That turn matters because Schlittler and Parker Messick were nowhere near the odds leaderboard when the season began. Dylan Cease had just signed a seven-year, $210 million contract, and the market’s attention was elsewhere. Now Schlittler is being discussed as the AL favorite, while Messick has pushed himself into rare company as the sixth rookie in MLB history to finish in the top three in Cy Young voting.
Messick seems like a lock for the No. 3 spot, which sharpens the shape of the AL ballot even if it does not settle the order at the top. The remaining uncertainty is whether Schlittler's season will land as a unanimous win or merely a clear one, and that distinction is exactly what makes Wednesday night matter beyond the trophy itself.
The week has already delivered a string of BBWAA honors, with Kevin McGonigle taking the AL award on Monday, Sal Stewart winning the NL award on Monday, Will Venable claiming AL BBWAA Manager of the Year on Tuesday and Pat Murphy taking the NL version. Wednesday's announcements will close the book on the season's major individual honors, and they will do it by putting Schlittler's rise and Messick's late charge in the same frame.
For Schlittler, the arc is the story. He arrived at Northeastern University with a 3.44 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 91.2 innings in his final season there, then rose through the Yankees system into a spot where the sport's top pitching award is now within reach. Wednesday night will show whether that climb ends with a unanimous Cy Young, or with a result that leaves one last mark of separation between a breakout and a clean sweep.
