Erik Boland: Cam Schlittler embraces his role in Yankees-Red Sox rivalry
Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler throws during the second inning against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on April 1, 2026, in Seattle, Washington. Credit: Getty Images/Steph Chambers
BOSTON – Cam Schlittler made the comment with a half-smile.
“I don’t think the rivalry is as intense as it used to be,” Schlittler said Tuesday of Yankees-Red Sox, a rivalry he was decidedly on the Boston side of things growing up as he did in nearby Walpole, Mass.
Asked about the remark a bit later and whether he would like to see Yankees-Red Sox return to the can’t-miss TV it was 20-plus years ago, Schlittler, speaking in the Yankees clubhouse before Tuesday night’s first meeting of the season between the clubs at Fenway Park, smiled again.
“For sure,” he said. “I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
Left unsaid, and certainly the reason for the 25-year-old’s somewhat mischievous grins regarding the topic, was the role he appears more than happy to play in ratcheting up the rivalry a bit.
The 6-6, 215-pound Schlittler, whose dominant fastball made him an instant fan-favorite almost as soon as he was called up to the majors last July, entered Aaron Judge-like popularity among the fanbase after striking out 12 over eight innings of the Yankees' 4-0 victory over his hometown team in the deciding Game 3 of last year’s AL Wild Card series.
Following that game, Schlittler disclosed that much of what motivated him was some of the hostile, vile social media abuse directed at him and, more significantly to the pitcher, toward his family, particularly his mother.
Earlier this season Schlittler said the on-line trolling from the more lunatic fringe of the Red Sox fanbase has continued pretty much unabated.
“I’m not too worried about that topic,” he said Tuesday. “(I’ve) dealt with stuff for six months now. Not overly concerned and just looking forward to Thursday.”
Schlittler has emphasized, as he did after last October’s Game 3, he has no ill-will against the Red Sox organization or their manager, Alex Cora. And the vast majority of his contact with Red Sox fans, including last winter when he spent two months back home in Walpole, have been positive.
“Wasn’t sure how the interactions were going to be at first,” he said. “They were great. When I was out with my friends or whatever it was, people were really respectful. I had no issues in the offseason, so it gives you a good feeling that it’s really just the people online that aren’t respectful.”
The pitcher, who expects to be the target of full-throated nastiness from the Fenway faithful – something he’s repeatedly said he’s “excited” about – clearly has leaned into a rivalry that isn’t quite what it once was.
Certainly not when it arguably was at its peak in 2003 and 2004, when the clubs met in memorable back-to-back ALCS. The first featured Pedro Martinez sending the Yankees 72-year-old bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground during an on-field skirmish in Game 3 and the Yankees storming back against Martinez late in Game 7, which the Yankees won on Aaron Boone’s 11th-inning homer. The second of those October wars saw the Red Sox rallying from a three-games-to-none deficit, the leadup to that including several fiery regular-season matchups, one of which featured a shoving match between Alex Rodriguez and Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek after A-Rod was hit by a Bronson Arroyo pitch, inciting a benches-clearing brawl.
“I would expect some good, hard intense baseball (this series),” Boone said Tuesday. “And that’s kind of always been my experience, as a player and a manager. These games always feel big.”
That was Boone gently disagreeing with Schlittler’s contention, which by any objective measure is true, that the rivalry isn’t quite the same (though, as anyone who regularly attends Yankees-Red Sox games can attest, the fan-intensity at Fenway and Yankee Stadium isn’t lacking).
Besides Schlittler, the rivalry received an additional boost this winter.
Sonny Gray and Aroldis Chapman, both former Yankees now with Boston, made disparaging comments about their time in the Bronx.
Red Sox reserve Isiah Kiner-Falefa, also a former Yankee who, it should be pointed out, loved his time in a Yankee uniform and still speaks fondly of his time wearing one, created a stir early in the spring. During a meeting with reporters, the always blunt Kiner-Falefa said the Blue Jays, with whom he spent the final two-plus months of last season after being dealt from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline, said Toronto players felt the Yankees were a better “matchup” for them than the Red Sox in the AL Wild-Card round.
On a separate note, those remarks fell more under the “well, obviously,” category as the Blue Jays went 8-5 against the Yankees in 2025, many of those games non-competitive (the ALDS played out much the same way in Toronto’s four-game victory).
“Props to those guys for coming here and talking about the rivalry,” Schlittler said, shrugging. “I think that’s a good mindset to have when you’re joining that team. Not too worried about it. Don’t think there’s going to be any drama between the guys (players). I think it’s a good thing to have.”
Schlittler, his big-league exposure to the rivalry not yet a year old, seems more than willing to do his part.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
