John Schneider settled the All-Star Game debate himself, and Dylan Cease is his guy no matter what.
Schneider decided on Cease as the American League's starter last night and informed Yankees manager Aaron Boone this morning, offering to talk it through with Boone and Cam Schlittler directly.
There wasn't much left to discuss on Schneider's end.
"If Cam was going to pitch, my decision was still going to be Dylan," Schneider said.
That's about as direct as an All-Star managerial decision gets, especially with Cease himself trying to defer the honor to Schlittler just days earlier.
The numbers back up why Schneider didn't blink. Cease is sitting on a 2.56 ERA with 148 strikeouts across 98 and one third innings, a K/9 rate of 13.55 that ranks with anyone in baseball.
His 1.13 WHIP over that stretch shows the strikeouts aren't coming at the expense of control either.
Why Cease's own sportsmanship made this decision trickier
Cease had said he'd only want the start if Schlittler wasn't available, a rare bit of deference from a pitcher with this kind of season on his résumé.
Schneider clearly wasn't going to let that generosity change his own evaluation of who deserved the ball.
Schlittler still leads AL starters in ERA and WAR despite his limited MLB experience, making this anything but a simple call for Schneider to make.
It's a bit like a coach overruling his own star player's attempt to hand off the spotlight, because the numbers made the decision for him anyway.
Offering to talk it through with Boone and Schlittler shows some respect for how close this race actually was, even with Schneider's mind already made up.
Toronto sits at 45-50 now, fourth in the American League East, but Cease's dominant season keeps giving this front office something to point to even during a rough stretch.
Does Schneider's certainty here settle the debate for good, or does Schlittler's own case still deserve more of the spotlight heading into the break?
Did John Schneider make the right call picking Dylan Cease over Cam Schlittler?
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