The Yankees plan to activate Clarke Schmidt from the 60-day injured list to start against the Cubs on Saturday, tweets Chris Kirschner of the Athletic. The right-hander has made three minor league rehab appearances, reaching 4 2/3 innings on 70 pitches in Double-A yesterday.
Schmidt has been out since late May due to a lat strain. That interrupted what looked like a breakout showing for the former first-round pick. Schmidt worked to a 2.52 earned run average while striking out more than 27% of batters faced through 60 2/3 innings. It had started to represent a major step forward from his 2023 work. Schmidt had stayed healthy enough to log 159 frames over 33 appearances last year, though he did so with a pedestrian 4.64 ERA and an average 21.5% strikeout percentage.
Through the season’s first couple months, the Yankees had perhaps the best rotation in the American League. They haven’t maintained that level. Going back to the May 27 retroactive date of Schmidt’s IL placement, New York’s starters rank 24th with a 4.74 earned run average. Of their six starters with 20+ innings in that time, only Gerrit Cole has allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine.
Cole’s 3.65 ERA is itself a disappointment for a defending Cy Young winner. Luis Gil has been inconsistent. Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman each have an ERA in the high 4.00s over the past few months. Carlos Rodón had a terrible June, though he has been more effective in recent weeks (and had a dominant 11-strikeout performance tonight).
Schmidt’s return could eventually push one of the veterans from the rotation. Cortes is the likeliest candidate to be squeezed out. Skipper Aaron Boone said on Tuesday that the left-hander will pitch in relief behind either Gil or Schmidt in Chicago (link via Greg Joyce of the New York Post). That’s not officially a demotion, as Cortes will draw back into the rotation next week. New York is off on Thursday but begins a stretch of 10 consecutive game days with the Cubs series. They’ll go to a six-man rotation to get through that run before making a decision on whether to push someone to relief for the rest of the season.
The upcoming relief appearance will be Cortes’ first in three years. He established himself in the rotation with an All-Star showing in 2022. The southpaw struggled through injury last season. Cortes has been healthy this season, tossing 159 innings while tying for the AL lead with 28 starts. His overall production — a 4.08 ERA, 22.1% strikeout percentage and 4.9% walk rate — is solid, but he has a 5.17 ERA in 10 appearances since the start of July. New York considered moving Cortes at the deadline but elected to hold him after moving away from their discussions with the Tigers on Jack Flaherty (reportedly because of an unspecified issue with Flaherty’s medicals).
Bet 60 bucks on the live line(between the top of the 9th and the bottom)for tex to win! Thanx clay Holmes you paid for lunch for a week!
FREE MONEY
Luis Gil is gassed from never pitching this many innings. Test him in the closers role which Holmes clearly doesn’t have the rocks for. 11 blown saves is completely ridiculous and Boonie should be fired before the game is over if he runs him out there again in the 9th.
YanksPhan42;
Agree with your comment that Gill is gassed. Don’t agree that sticking him in the loser role will work. The man IS gassed. Putting him in high leverage situations is asking for it.
Don’t know the answer to Holmes. Matt Blake is one of the top pitching coaches n MLB. He’s backing Holmes, saying the “unlucky” thing.
It does seem since their last WS appearance in 2009 that the years the Yankees look to be WS contenders, something always pulls them down. Expanded playoffs are crazy. Added to a 162 game season, it favors younger players that don’t get injured as much — and if they do can recover faster than the vets. Yankee teams for decades are built around high-pried veteran players. If they’re not injured, many are gassed come the second season.
The missing c on closer made me LOL.
Right now they’re running Gil back out as a starter. If his innings are at a limit….would you rather have him go 6-7 innings in one day or space them out during the course of 2 weeks as a closer? Seems like that makes sense
Then you got DJ LeMahieu who keeps getting chances to show everyone how washed up he is. Good dude but he’s an embarrassment out there
it’s not his fault Boone keeps putting him in the lineup!
Boone should have been fired three years ago.
The Yankees’ biggest worry right now is bullpen. They blew another save in Texas and dropped into 2nd in the AL East. Especially embarrassing cos the White Sox went full White Sox in Baltimore.
Sure Lock Holmes.
Yankees keep playing Verdugo and DJLM and consistently give them chances. Chances to butcher a play at 1B and come back and bite them hard…
Dodgers dumped Verdugo, Boston dumped Verdugo, Boone love Verdugo !!,,,Verdugo is not consisten,with excuseme base hit.lucky base hit,,please try Dominguez now,,what are the Yankees waiting for ?
Imagine if LeMahieu had an “allergy” to this batting gloves like Verdugo allegedly did? We’re talking .098 BA.
No sympathy for NYY starting pitching. Mostly seasoned veterans with proven records Underperforming for what they are paid. On the other hand, poor Baltimore with all of their injuries to SP. The Yankees remind me of the Cardinals, accept your guys are better pitchers. Where is the Young Pitching talent on the NYY? Did they trade them all away? Inquiring Superfans want to know, including me!
TO FB: You make some good points. However, Verdugo is paid a lot of money!
The Yankees dumped to Alex Rodríguez oweing 25 millones and Hick too, so why not Verdugo?
I say the yankees move to a 6 man rotation the rest of the way.. and each starter can pitch a inning or 2 in relief in between starts if needed sort of like they did with pettite at the end of his career. As for the closer roll. There are not that many options this late but where is lou trivino? He did have some closing experience with oakland… is he still rehabbing?
And Dennis Santana is sparkling in Pittsburgh. Yanks should try to get him back for stretch run.