The Yankees have taken yet another body blow, and this one could have lingering effects well into 2026.
Clarke Schmidt “likely” will undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, which will knock him out for the rest of this season and most, if not all, of next year.
Schmidt had emerged as a valuable and consistent starter for an already beat-up rotation, but after leaving Thursday’s start early because of right forearm tightness, he underwent an MRI on Friday that revealed the UCL damage. Now he will need his second Tommy John surgery after first having one in 2017.
“In a lot of ways [he’s] obviously devastated, bummed out,” Boone said before the Yankees extended their losing streak to six games in a 12-6 loss to the Mets at Citi Field. “But Clarke’s way is you got to flip the script. He’s getting his mind into, ‘Let’s get it fixed and get on with it and start to get after the rehab portion of it.’ I think mentally, that’s where he’s at.”
The season began with Gerrit Cole undergoing his own Tommy John surgery in March. Luis Gil has also been out all season with a high-grade lat strain that likely will keep him sidelined until August. And Ryan Yarbrough, who had been helping to fill in some of the gaps, has been sidelined since June 22 with an oblique strain and has not resumed throwing.
Schmidt’s injury — he is in the process of gathering additional opinions but Boone conceded surgery seems “inevitable” — could force the Yankees to acquire another starter before the July 31 trade deadline in addition to their needs in the bullpen and third base.
“He’s become a really good starting pitcher in this league,” Boone said. “So it’s a tough blow. Every team has their share of these things that happen. We’ve got to be able to absorb it and hopefully get some guys back in the mix soon and create another opportunity for somebody else to hopefully step in and pick up the slack.”
In the interim, emerging pitching prospect Cam Schlittler is expected to be called up on Tuesday or Wednesday to make his MLB debut in Schmidt’s spot, The Post’s Joel Sherman reported.
But it will be difficult to replace Schmidt, the 29-year-old right-hander who had pitched to a 3.32 ERA across 14 starts and 78 ²/₃ innings this season. Not including his injury-shortened start on Thursday, he had completed at least six innings in eight of his 13 starts this year.
Among 104 starters who have thrown at least 160 innings since the start of last season, Schmidt ranked 18th with a 3.07 ERA. The only thing keeping him from throwing more innings were injuries, as he missed three-plus months last year with a lat strain and then the first three weeks of this season with right rotator cuff tendinitis.
“Clarke’s obviously a huge part of this team, especially the innings he was putting up,” Max Fried said. “He might not have been feeling the best, but that shows how good he is. Doesn’t matter how you’re feeling, you’re just going to go out there and put up a lot of competitive innings. You feel for him because he’s worked so hard in being able to bounce back. Started off with the little bit of a setback in spring and then started to get in a little bit of a groove.
“You started to see him really develop, getting deep into games and picking up big wins for us. We’re definitely going to miss him.”
After Thursday’s start in Toronto, Schmidt revealed that he had been dealing with varying levels of forearm tightness dating back to his June 4 outing against the Guardians. For that reason, the Yankees had given him extra days of rest between starts whenever possible to give him more time to recover, and the results were hard to argue — a 28 ¹/₃-inning scoreless streak that included seven no-hit innings against the Orioles on June 21, when he was pulled at a career-high 103 pitches.
But even that outing proved to be a grind for Schmidt, and now he knows why.
“It’s a shame,” Fried said. “I feel for him and wish him all the best. I know he’s going to be able to come back stronger, better. If we saw him pitching like this with whatever percent health he was, I’m excited to see what he’s like when he’s back 100 percent healthy.”