The Yankees announced that right-hander Clarke Schmidt has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to September 21, with right bicep neuritis. Fellow righty Bradley Hanner has been recalled as the corresponding move.
Schmidt had a good run as a member of the Yankee rotation but he has been a non-factor for a while. He underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2025. He was just reinstated from the IL last week. He made one appearance, tossing two thirds of an inning last Wednesday. On Sunday, he was warming up to come into the game but experienced some biceps cramping and didn’t come in, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. It was thought to be a pretty minor issue but it seems he didn’t make progress in recent days and has been put on the shelf.
Schmidt hasn’t pitched in over a week but IL stints can only be backdated by a maximum of three days. He was under consideration for a spot on the postseason roster but that’s off the table now. His timeline will make him ineligible for the Wild Card round and the start of the ALDS. He could be in play for the ALCS if he gets healthy and the Yankees make it that far but he would still be a risky choice given his lengthy absence and continued arm issues.
Removing Schmidt from the equation will make things slightly easier for the club’s decision makers but they still have a lot in the air. Per Joel Sherman of The New York Post, the club is considering an unusually heavy lean towards position players to face the Red Sox in the Wild Card round, perhaps carrying as many as 16 position players to just 10 pitchers.
That decision would be about having a heavy mix of righty and lefty bats to play matchups. The Yankees have lefties Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Luis García Jr., Spencer Jones, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Austin Wells and Ryan McMahon on the roster right now. Trent Grisham is on the IL and trying to get healthy for the postseason. To complement that group, righty bats Heliot Ramos, George Lombard Jr., Amed Rosario, José Caballero, Paul Goldschmidt, Ali Sánchez and Anthony Volpe could be in the mix for spots. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are on the IL but both are trying to get into game shape before the playoffs begin.
If the Yanks take 16 guys from that group, it would mean relying heavily on their starting pitchers, with Max Fried, Cam Schlittler and Gerrit Cole expected to start the three games in some order. Carlos Rodón and Will Warren could be needed for long relief because, as Sherman points out, there’s no free runner in extra innings in the playoffs. A really long game is still rare but can happen, such as when Game Three of last year’s World Series went to 18 innings.
That would leave just five spots for traditional relievers. David Bednar, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn would have three of those. That would leave only two for a group consisting of John Schreiber, Michael Fulmer, Ryan Yarbrough, Tim Hill and and Luis Gil. Schmidt would have been in that group but is now out.
There are a couple of other wild cards in the mix as well. Ryan Weathers is on the injured list with a forearm strain but is trying to make it back. Then there’s Carlos Lagrange, who is also trying to come back from injury. He suffered a capsular strain in his throwing shoulder in July and is still trying to get built back up from that.
Lagrange still hasn’t made his major league debut but has electric stuff, with triple-digit heat. The Yankees view him as a long-term starter but moved him to relief this summer, just before that shoulder injury, in the hopes that he could be a late-season impact arm. It’s a risky gambit with clear upside, as Lagrange has always had big strikeout numbers in the minors but also with lots of walks. He has a huge 31.8% strikeout rate in his minor league career but also a 13% walk rate. He has made just one official game appearance since June, getting into a Triple-A contest last week.
Turning back to Schmidt, the Yankees will have to decide what to do with him for next season. He can be controlled for 2027 via arbitration before he’s slated for free agency. Since he missed essentially all of this year, it should be possible to retain him for the same $4.5MM salary he made this year. That’s a perfectly fine price for a guy who posted a 3.85 ERA over 323 innings from 2023 to 2025, as long as he is expected to be healthy next year.
However, the Yankees may not have a rotation spot for him. Their 2027 rotation projects to include Fried, Schlittler, Cole, Rodón, Warren, Weathers, Lagrange and others. Schmidt now has over five years of big league service time and can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. It would be selling low to put him on the block after missing almost two whole years but he doesn’t currently have a great path to a spot in next year’s rotation.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images
