The Yankees can use all the relief pitching help they can get these days. Due to injuries, it seems like they are always improvising to fill the unit with reliable arms, signing or claiming guys such as Justin Topa (already DFA’d), Michael Fulmer, and John Schreiber in the last week or so.
They need some stability in the mid-to-late innings. Fortunately, one of their homegrown guys is getting ready and shaping up as an option at the right time: Clarke Schmidt. At the moment, Cam Schlittler, Gerrit
Cole, Carlos Rodón, Max Fried, Will Warren, and Elmer Rodríguez are ahead of the 2017 first-round pick in the rotation depth chart, with Ryan Weathers potentially rejoining the staff in a few weeks, too. That’s why the organization has already said Schmidt is ticketed for the bullpen when he returns.
To be fair, that’s probably where he’s needed the most. The Yankees’ rotation is better than their bullpen, and they could certainly use an established starter with (successful) relief pitching experience to get through some of the toughest outs in the late innings.
Schmidt, who moved his rehab to Triple-A and pitched two solid innings in which he allowed one run and struck out three on Wednesday, already had a strong season as a bullpen piece back in 2022. That year, he pitched 29 games, starting just three, and posted a 3.12 ERA and a 3.60 FIP in 57.2 innings. He walked 23 and struck out 56.
While it’s true that Schmidt didn’t have a good postseason that year, allowing three runs (and two homers) in three games and 2.1 innings, he is much more mature at this point in his career. After that showing, he has logged three seasons as a starter with mixed but mostly positive results.
A role in relief would allow Schmidt to throw harder in short spurts and maybe focus on some specific pitches, such as the cutter, the knuckle curve, the slider, and the sweeper, with a few four-seamers sprinkled in.
After posting a 26.3 percent strikeout rate in 2024 and a 23.1 mark last year as a starter, Schmidt has some exciting strikeout potential as a reliever, throwing fewer innings at max effort, with the pitching know-how he has gotten over the years. God knows the Yankees need someone who can get some swings and misses in the back of the bullpen.
It’s unclear if manager Aaron Boone will use him as a traditional one-inning reliever or as a multi-inning weapon, but he can thrive in any role. For that to happen, however, he needs to get through his rehab without any setbacks.
Before the two solid frames he racked up on Wednesday for the RailRiders, he had only pitched one game in Double-A, surrendering two runs in 0.2 frames. He is still working his way back from a long layoff following elbow surgery last year, and it stands to reason that he could be rusty whenever he returns to the bigs.
Since Schmidt won’t be starting this year, or at least that’s not the plan at the moment, he is not expected to need too many additional rehab appearances before being ready for activation. In fact, depending on how he feels, there’s a tiny chance his next outing comes in the majors, even though it’s unlikely.
He’ll probably return to starting next year. For now, however, he will help a unit that has the best ERA in the league this season at 3.08, but was 11th with a 3.67 mark in August. As good as the relief corps has been as a whole, the group clearly could use support now, and Schmidt is solid bet to provide it.
