New York Yankees prospect Clarke Schmidt is rising quickly

While the talk of the town has been New York Yankees top pitching prospect Deivi Garcia, there is another young righty climbing the ranks and showing he can be a quality option at the top level.

While Clarke Schmidt may not reach the majors this season, he has impressed consistently in the minor leagues. Most recently, the Yankees’ No.5 prospect tossed 6.2 scoreless innings to ensure the Thunder won the final game of a series against New Hampshire 4-0.

“He’s the type of guy where the hitters will tell you how good he is,” manager Patrick Osborn said, according to the Trentonian. “This day and age we have a lot of technology that helps to evaluate pitchers and players, but Clarke you just need to watch the hitters, and they’ll tell you this kid is really good.”

The 23-year-old pitcher struck out nine batters and allowed just two hits. He retired 17 batters in a row at one point, putting 20 of 23 hitters out of their misery.

The former first-round pick from 2017 was coming off a questionable Double-A debut, but he has proved he can be a quality option moving forward.

Schmidt has a reputation for throwing strikes frequently, hitting on 61.9% of his pitches. Over 92 total, 57 of them were strikes against New Hampshire. His combination of changeup, sinker, and fastball are the bread-and-butter of his repertoire.

Learning how to engage batters and keep them guessing is part of what makes a pitcher great. Those are the challenges he will face and the developmental refinement he will need to go through before he can be considered a major league player.