By the time MLB awards week reaches Wednesday night, the conversation may already be settled in one league. The AL and NL Cy Young winners, along with the All-MLB team selections and the first BBWAA Reliever of the Year honors, will be revealed then, and the clearest storyline is whether Cam Schlittler can turn a breakout season into a unanimous AL Cy Young finish.
That would be a remarkable end to a year that began with Schlittler and Parker Messick absent from the odds leaderboard before the 2026 season. It also would underline how quickly the Cy Young conversation can change once a pitcher turns performance into proof. Schlittler was a seventh-round pick out of Northeastern University in 2022, and during his final season there he posted a 3.44 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 91.2 innings. That profile did not scream instant award winner at the time, but it helps explain the arc: development, patience, and then a leap into the center of the award race.
What Wednesday Night Will Decide
The BBWAA has already started handing out awards this week. Gold Glove and Platinum Glove winners were revealed on Monday, and Tuesday brought the BBWAA AL and NL Manager of the Year announcements. Wednesday night brings the marquee reveal: the AL and NL Cy Young awards, plus the All-MLB team selections and the new BBWAA AL and NL Reliever of the Year honors. In other words, this is the night that closes the loop on the 2026 season’s individual honors.
For Schlittler, the biggest question is not simply whether he wins. It is whether he wins unanimously. That possibility gives this reveal a little extra weight, because unanimous Cy Young selections are rare enough to feel like a statement about how complete a season really was. If Schlittler gets there, it would suggest the voters saw not just excellence, but separation.
The context around the race matters too. Before the 2026 season, Dylan Cease had already signed a seven-year, $210 million contract, a reminder that elite starting pitching always sits at the center of baseball’s value system. Awards week tends to sharpen that reality. The sport spends six months building a case, and then a single night turns those cases into formal history.
That is what makes Wednesday night more than a ceremony. It is the final judgment on a season, the official answer to who stood above the rest, and a first look at how the BBWAA wants to frame the year’s best pitchers. For Cam Schlittler, it may also be the night he moves from breakout story to unanimous Cy Young winner.
