A few years ago, Cam Schlittler was taking the mound in Bridgewater. Tonight, he gets the ball at Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox.
That sentence alone is enough to make this a special night for Somerset Patriots fans. But Schlittler is hardly the only familiar name. The Yankees' postseason roster is filled with players who came through Somerset on the way to the Bronx, and the reported Game 1 lineup turns the Wild Card opener into something close to a Double-A reunion under October lights.
Schlittler is the perfect place to start. He made 17 appearances for Somerset across the 2024 and 2025 seasons, posting a 3.16 ERA with 107 strikeouts in 85.1 innings. By 2026, he was a Major League All-Star, and he finished the regular season 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA. Now the former Patriot is being handed the baseball for one of the highest-pressure assignments the Yankees can offer: a postseason opener against Boston.
For anyone who spends time around minor-league baseball, that kind of rise is the whole promise of the experience. You are not just watching a game in the moment. You are watching careers being built in real time. Every now and then, the player you saw developing in front of a smaller crowd is suddenly standing on one of baseball's biggest stages with an entire season hanging on every pitch.
The same feeling follows Ben Rice. Before he became an important piece of the Yankees lineup, Rice tore through Double-A pitching in Somerset. Across his Patriots career, he hit .295/.392/.582 with 28 home runs and 74 RBI in 97 games. His 2024 stay in Bridgewater was brief because he simply hit his way out of the level. Tonight, he is part of a postseason lineup against baseball's most familiar Yankees rival.
Austin Wells gives Somerset fans another direct connection. He played 113 games for the Patriots across 2022 and 2023, collecting 23 home runs and 93 RBI. Those were not anonymous development games tucked away somewhere far from the Yankees' orbit. They happened in Bridgewater, in front of fans who were able to watch a future big-league catcher learn the job before he was doing it in the Bronx.
Then there is Spencer Jones, whose climb has been especially fun to watch because so much of it happened recently. Jones spent significant time with Somerset before earning his Major League call-up in May, becoming the 56th former Patriot to make his MLB debut since Somerset became the Yankees' Double-A affiliate in 2021. A player who was still producing four-hit nights for the Patriots in 2025 is now being trusted in October baseball a year later.
George Lombard Jr. brings the timeline even closer. The Yankees' top prospect arrived in Somerset in May 2025 and spent 108 games at Double-A that season before returning to the Patriots to open 2026. He has gone from prospect watch to postseason responsibility at remarkable speed. The distance between TD Bank Ballpark and Yankee Stadium is not especially far on a map, but for a baseball player it can represent an enormous climb. Lombard has made it quickly.
Anthony Volpe's Somerset connection goes back to 2022, when the Somerset County native entered the season as the Yankees' top prospect. By the time he was promoted, he had 18 home runs, 60 RBI and 44 stolen bases for the Patriots. He even returned to Somerset on a rehab assignment this season. For local fans, Volpe has always made the Yankees' player-development pipeline feel especially close to home.
And if the Yankees need length from the bullpen, Will Warren is another name Somerset fans know well. Warren pitched in 24 games for the Patriots between 2022 and 2023, going 10-6 with a 3.65 ERA and 122 strikeouts. It is difficult to look at this Yankees roster without repeatedly finding another player whose road to October ran straight through Bridgewater.
That is what makes tonight more than a Yankees playoff game from a New Jersey perspective. Somerset's affiliation with the Yankees is not an abstract organizational chart. The evidence is right there on the field. Five former Patriots are expected in the Game 1 batting order, another former Patriot is starting on the mound, and Warren is available behind them. A night like this is the player-development system made visible.
It also changes the way you watch. Major League stars can feel distant until you remember seeing them in a Patriots uniform, standing a few feet away during batting practice, signing for kids, working through an 0-for-4 night or figuring out how to escape a Double-A jam. Then the television graphic says Yankees versus Red Sox, Wild Card Game 1, and the player on the screen is someone who once felt like part of the local baseball landscape.
That is also the one unfortunate part of tonight for me: I have to watch it on television instead of being there in person.
There are worse problems, obviously. The game will still be on. The volume will still be up. But this is exactly the kind of night that deserves a seat in the ballpark. Yankees-Red Sox in October already carries enough history. Add Schlittler on the mound and a lineup packed with former Somerset Patriots, and it becomes one of those rare games where a national postseason moment also feels distinctly local.
So the couch will have to do. I will be watching the Yankees, but I will also be watching the Patriots alumni roll call. Every Schlittler strikeout, every Rice at-bat, every Wells frame, every Jones swing, every Lombard play and every Volpe chance will carry a little extra meaning because the road to this moment passed through Somerset first.
Tonight, Bridgewater is in the Bronx. I just wish I were there to see it in person.
SOURCE NOTES
• Sports Illustrated: Who's Pitching for the Yankees in Game 1 vs. Red Sox?
• NBC Boston / The Associated Press: Where to watch Red Sox vs. Yankees Wild Card Game 1
• New York Post: Yankees unveil Game 1 Wild Card lineup as critical infield calls revealed
• Sporting News: Yankees Wild Card roster: Full 26-man postseason list makes big decisions to face Red Sox
• Baseball Savant: Cam Schlittler Stats
• Somerset Patriots: MLB Debuts
• Baseball Savant: Ben Rice Stats
• Somerset Patriots: Spencer Jones Called Up To Major Leagues By Yankees
• Somerset Patriots: Jones Ties Career High Four Hits, Patriots Take Series over New Hampshire Friday
• Somerset Patriots: George Lombard Jr. Promoted To Triple-A
• MLB.com: Anthony Volpe begins rehab assignment for left shoulder injury
Game 1 assignment, lineup, postseason roster, Somerset career statistics and MLB debut details attributed to Sports Illustrated, NBC Boston/The Associated Press, New York Post, Sporting News, Baseball Savant, Somerset Patriots and MLB.com materials cited in SOURCE NOTES. Cultural framing is RMN's.