After Luis Gil’s remarkable start in the Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Cubs this past afternoon, hopes are high for what the pitching staff can provide down the stretch. Luke Weaver looked sharp while collecting his first career save, and this group will be receiving two big-time reinforcements as Ian Hamilton and Clarke Schmidt are expected to be activated off of the injured list tomorrow. Ron Marinaccio has already been optioned as one of the corresponding moves, but the need to open up spots on their 40-man roster could result in some pitchers getting DFA’d in the coming weeks.
Schmidt was one of this team’s best starters while Hamilton came off of an excellent 2023 season, and both of them could add some much-needed strikeouts to the Yankees’ pitching staff.
Ian Hamilton and Clarke Schmidt Could Be Huge Additions To the Yankees
2024 looked like the year of Clarke Schmidt early on, as the right-hander fired 60.2 innings with a 2.52 ERA through his first 11 starts. His 27.1% strikeout rate and 115 Stuff+ were both indications of an improving arsenal, as his cutter saw an uptick in velocity and his sweeper added roughly four inches of horizontal movement. The Yankees’ 2017 first-round pick looked brilliant in his rehab outings, working up to 70 pitches and striking out 41.9% of batters faced with a 3.18 ERA across three starts.
From a velocity and movement standpoint, everything looks pretty good for Clarke Schmidt, but the post-injury command can take some time to bounce back from. Unlike Luis Gil, the 28-year-old hasn’t thrown in a Major League Game in three months, so we could see some rust being shaken off even if he’s returning from a rehab assignment. It took Gerrit Cole a few outings to get himself rolling, so time will tell if Schmidt can rebound and be the top-of-the-rotation force that we saw in the first three months of the season.
He’s not the only reinforcement on the way, as the Yankees can expect some much-needed firepower in the form of Ian Hamilton as well.
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Ian Hamilton was not having the dominant year that we were hoping for before hitting the injured list, but his stuff has rebounded as he hit 98 MPH multiple times on the radar gun in Scranton. The 29-year-old right-hander struck out 50% of batters faced while not allowing a single baserunner to reach, and he kept the ball on the ground plenty as well which is a good sign considering that wasn’t the case at the Major League level this season. Despite a 14-point jump in Stuff+ and an increase in Location+, Hamilton saw his numbers decline from a breakout year in 2023.
Some reports from Meredith Marokovits during the season suggested that Hamilton was struggling to rebound after outings, and that could have played a role in his regression. His lat injury could also have been an indication that he wasn’t fully healthy, as typically those things can linger and affect command dramatically. Ian Hamilton is still missing bats at a high clip and getting batters to expand out of the zone, but the problem has been a near 12% decrease to his groundball rate, meaning fewer double-play balls and more well-struck baseballs.
If he can look somewhat like the version of Ian Hamilton we got in 2022, the Yankees could be a lot better, and considering their massive question mark right now at closer, they could be looking at him as an option in the ninth inning.