Clarke Schmidt was the talk of New York Yankees Spring and Summer Camp.
One of the bright spots in the New York Yankees summer camp was starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt. He showed the confidence and a full pitching repertoire (four pitches) to get outs at the major league level.
Many thought Schmidt would stick with the club due to the expansion of the roster size. But the Yankees resisted temptation and sent him back to the alternate site for further seasoning.
More from New York Yankees
- Time for the Yankees to embrace change: A call for Brian Cashman’s departure
- Stock Up, Stock Down: Braves, Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox
- New York Yankees: The harsh decline of Luis Severino
- New York Yankees: 4 players who are on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- New York Yankees: Everson Pereira awaiting call-up in Triple-A
Now, the stakes have changed as the Yankees pitching staff has suffered through a never-ending amount of injuries thus far. Suddenly without any viable solutions, the team’s front office may be thinking Schmidt’s future is now.
The young right-hander caught everyone’s attention at his first big league camp this spring. Schmidt recorded a 2.57 ERA in four appearances with Yankees and continued to impress the brass following the resumption of the sport in July. His performance earned him the 2020 James P. Dawson Award as the most outstanding Yankee rookie in spring training.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone did confirm that he has received positive reports on Schmidt from team staff members at the alternate site. But the problem with bringing him up to the major league level is that Schmidt isn’t currently on the Yankees 40-man roster. Any potential move will come down to if Yankees senior vice-president and general manager Brian Cashman wants to start Schmidt’s MLB service-time clock with his callup.