Yankees Announce Massive Injury News With Playoffs Looming

The New York Yankees are preparing to add another arm to a pitching staff that has been stretched thin by injuries and the grind of a long season.

Manager Aaron Boone said right-hander Clarke Schmidt is expected to come off the injured list Wednesday, a move first reported by New York Daily News beat writer Gary Phillips.

If the plan holds, Schmidt will be available for the club’s remaining home games as the team attempts to compete for an AL East title.

Schmidt, 30, has spent most of 2026 recovering from Tommy John surgery and an accompanying internal-brace procedure performed in July 2025. That operation cost him the second half of last season and nearly the entire current campaign.

Over the past several weeks, he has been building innings on a minor-league rehab assignment. His most recent outing came Saturday with Double-A Somerset, where he worked 1⅓ scoreless innings and struck out three.

Across five rehab appearances he has posted a 3.86 ERA with 11 strikeouts in seven innings.

The Yankees intend to use him in relief rather than stretch him back into a starting role this late in the year.

The right-hander’s path to the majors has never been straightforward. New York selected him 17th overall in the 2017 draft out of South Carolina even though he was still rehabbing from his first Tommy John surgery as a junior.

He debuted in 2020 and has since compiled a 3.82 career ERA, 394 strikeouts, and a 1.27 WHIP in 393⅓ innings.

His strongest stretch came in a 16-game sample when he posted a 2.85 ERA, though he threw only 85⅓ innings that year. The lone season in which he surpassed 100 innings was 2023, when he logged 159.

A long list of subsequent ailments—forearm, hamstring, rotator cuff, lat, and foot issues between 2022 and 2024—has repeatedly interrupted his development.

His stuff, built more on spin and movement than raw velocity, draws comparisons to teammate Will Warren. That profile can play in short bursts, which is exactly the role the Yankees have in mind for October.

With the regular season winding down, every available pitcher matters. Schmidt will become the second Yankee this year to return from Tommy John surgery, another reminder of how much the organization has asked of its medical staff.

Whether he can stay healthy enough to contribute in October remains the open question, but for now the club is simply glad to have him back in the mix.