Clarke Schmidt made his second rehab start, as the Yankees moved him up from Double-A with the Somerset Patriots to Triple-A with the Scranton RailRiders, and as a result that means we have access to pitch data. The right-hander fired three innings of one-run baseball in the outing, but what’s important is seeing how the stuff looks after a long layoff like the one Schmidt had following his lat injury. With the velocity right where you’d want it to be, he’s just got to tinker with how much he’s getting around the ball because it wasn’t moving as much away from right-handed batters.
Still, it was a strong performance for the 28-year-old out of South Carolina, and the Yankees should be excited about what he could contribute down the stretch.
Clarke Schmidt Could Be a Big Weapon For the Yankees
From a velocity standpoint, everything looks good for Clarke Schmidt, who struck out five batters while allowing just one run in his three innings of work for Scranton last night. That’s an encouraging sign, and I believe the issues with his sweeper movement have more to do with mechanical rust than a sudden loss of skill. He’s built up to 58 pitches, and I imagine the next progression for him would be to get close to 70 and see where things go from there.
In his two rehab outings, he’s allowed two runs while striking out 11 batters, and he looks like the starter we saw earlier this year who led this staff in ERA (2.52). His ability to miss bats is great, possessing three different pitches with a Whiff Rate over 30% and a strikeout rate over 27%. The Yankees need someone like Clarke Schmidt in the middle of their rotation to overwhelm defenses, and I’m confident that as long as the stuff is there he’ll be a valuable starter.
A tweak he made was throwing his sinker less often, using it just 15.6% of the time over his final four starts because it was getting hit pretty hard, and over those four starts, he allowed just three earned runs while pitching into the seventh inning twice.
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Missing more bats and limiting damage contact is very important, and I think it could allow him to pitch deeper into games more often. I have faith that Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes can make playoff starts for this team, but the inconsistencies of Carlos Rodon and the lack of swing-and-miss in Marcus Stroman’s game make it hard to rely on either of them to take the ball in the postseason.
Having Clarke Schmidt in the mix gives them a strong option who profiles well for a playoff setting thanks to his mixture of strong swing-and-miss pitches. His Stuff+ (115) is the fifth-best mark among starting pitchers (min. 60 IP), a massive jump from where he was at last season, and there’s a chance that he could be the Yankees’ Game 2 starter depending on how he finishes this season.
The rotation needs Clarke Schmidt, and while the bullpen could use some help too, they have a plethora of reinforcements on the way such as Ian Hamilton and Lou Trivino. Scott Effross could also join the big-league team soon, so they might have too many bullpen arms for their roster when October rolls around. We’re looking at a true impact pitcher here, and while I could be jumping the gun on his median outcome based on what we saw this year, I think it’s a healthy risk to take.