The New York Yankees are in a rough stretch and now will likely be without starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt for the rest of the season and most of the 2025 season as well. It was revealed on Saturday that he suffered a UCL injury in his right elbow and is likely to be going under the knife for Tommy John surgery. This makes things a lot more interesting for the Yankees as well as Clarke Schmidt so let’s take a deeper dive into what this means going forward.
The New York Yankees are going to be without pitcher Clarke Schmidt for a significant amount of time as he is likely to need Tommy John surgery, which will sideline him for the remainder of the 2025 season and most of the 2026 season. Schmidt has been feeling right forearm tightness recently and was pulled from his recent start in Toronto due to the injury. The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner talked with Clarke Schmidt and the Yankees pitcher revealed why he did not have any testing on his right elbow before.
“There’s a lot of things that go into that. I was feeling fine and my results were really good, and being able to go out there every five days and I got myself back to where I was executing pitches and my stuff — I’m still throwing velocity wise where I normally am. So nothing alarming from that end. Guys are dealing with stuff all the time throughout the year. So if I was to be like, ‘Oh, I’m extra sore this week, let me pull the shoot and not go out there and pitch,’ then I don’t know if I would ever pitch.
“That goes for a lot of guys in this league. There comes a point in the season where your 100% is a lot different than what it looks like in spring training and in the beginning of the year. So, yeah, I think that’s probably the main reason.”
This will be the second time Schmidt has Tommy John surgery in his career and will end a strong season he has had up to this point. He made 14 starts this season and was 4-4 with a 3.32 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP in 78.2 innings. Now, the Yankees are likely going to be in the conversation for trading for a starting pitcher as Gerrit Cole is out for the season, while Luis Gil and Ryan Yarbrough are on the Injured List.
The team is in a tough position, and having a second Tommy John surgery is typically a bad note for the remainder of their career. However, Schmidt is still just 29 years old, so there will be time to recover and still be effective.
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