NEW YORK (AP) — One game into his major league career, Cam Schlittler is the hardest-throwing member of the New York Yankees' rotation.
Schlittler used his 100 mph fastball to shut down Cal Raleigh and the Seattle Mariners during an eye-opening debut Wednesday night, pitching the Yankees to a 9-6 victory before a throng of friends and family members in the crowd.
“Obviously, it's been my goal my whole life,” Schlittler said. “I don't think I've really processed it yet.”
One of the team’s top-rated prospects, the 6-foot-6 Schlittler struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. He threw New York's seven fastest pitches this season and his average fastball velocity of 97.9 mph was the highest for a Yankees pitcher this year.
But it was his poise and improved secondary pitches that really impressed manager Aaron Boone.
“You see his stuff really plays," Boone said. “I see a lot of potential.”
Boone called it “a great first step” and said Schlittler will get another big league start, likely after the All-Star break.
“He was sick,” said Yankees teammate Jazz Chisholm Jr., who homered twice and drove in four runs.
Schlittler was called up from Triple-A to pitch in place of injured Clarke Schmidt, who is expected to undergo a second Tommy John surgery on his right elbow that would sideline him for the rest of this season and much of next year.
So there's a genuine opportunity for Schlittler to stick in the rotation for a Yankees squad trying to catch Toronto atop the AL East.
“Obviously, just trying to get the first one under my belt and then whatever happens. I'm just fortunate that they gave me that opportunity,” Schlittler said. “Just take it day by day and see what happens.”
Staked to an early 3-0 lead, Schlittler gave up three runs and four hits — including solo homers by J.P. Crawford and Jorge Polanco.
The 24-year-old right-hander walked his first batter but settled down quickly and froze Raleigh, the major league home run leader, with a 100 mph heater for his first strikeout in the opening inning.
“He was nasty," Yankees outfielder Jasson Domínguez said.
That baseball was one of two sitting in Schlittler's locker after the game, both keepsakes inscribed and encased above the Yankees' championship belt for the night.
Schlittler said the strikeout ball will probably end up in his room back home eventually, but first he planned to give it to his parents.
“I know they'll cherish that,” he said.
Schlittler, who walked two, ending his outing with another strikeout of Raleigh before leaving with a 6-2 lead in the sixth to a standing ovation as his parents hugged in the Yankee Stadium stands.
Schlittler was born in Massachusetts but said he always wanted to play for the Yankees. They selected him in the seventh round of the 2022 amateur draft from Northeastern in Boston, right in the heart of rival Red Sox country.
The pitcher said his girlfriend and cousin were on hand in addition to plenty of friends, and he left 23 tickets for his supporters. But he said he wasn't all that nervous come gametime.
“I think probably had more jitters this morning, honestly,” Schlittler said. “I know my dad just in general gets more nervous than I do when I throw.”
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New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) walks onto the field during the first inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.
The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.
Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.
“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.
Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.
Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.
She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.
The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.
The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.
Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.
“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”
Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.
The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.
That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.
For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.
Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.
"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”
An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
