Yankees: Latest Clarke Schmidt update isn’t encouraging for his future

New York Yankees fans have learned not to read too much into injury timelines over the years.

After all, we have plenty of experience deciphering the team’s double speak.

If someone’s due back in “about a month,” you can bank on two. If someone’s “feeling good,” you’ll see them around the All-Star break. That’s how life works with the Yankees’ walking wounded.

So when Aaron Boone outright admits that someone still hasn’t gotten to the “rehabilitation” portion of their injury recovery after a month without picking up a baseball, something isn’t quite right.

After Saturday’s injury update, fans had an official update on Luis Severino’s continued progress, which bodes well for him being a midseason addition to this deeper-than-normal rotation. Not only is he throwing fastballs off the mound, but he’s mixed in the rest of his arsenal, too.

As for Clarke Schmidt, who went down early in spring training with an elbow strain thanks to his attempts to his maximum velocity too soon? Still isn’t throwing.

Is Yankees top prospect Clarke Schmidt in the running for another lost season?

Oh, and Schmidt turns 26 next season, by the way.

We’re not worried because this is some sort of devastating issue that will stunt his development forever. We’re worried because the pain hasn’t gone away yet after a month, which means another…several weeks before his throwing program can begin in earnest.

Will Schmidt be on a minor-league Opening Day roster in early May? Will he get this campaign going by midseason? Will he have a chance at a promotion before the season’s second half?

Add this to the 2017 campaign the Yankees knew he would miss thanks to his collegiate Tommy John surgery. Add it to 2018, which consisted of two starts at Short-Season A ball after his rehab was completed. Add it to 2020, the season in which nobody played.

Now, the picture of the righty’s development begins to look bleak. In actuality, he’s only had one year of forward momentum mixed in with several setbacks for various reasons.

Now, he’s officially on the 60-Day IL, and based on Saturday’s news, we can expect the longer, more indefinite type of IL stint from the powerful righty.

Skipping several levels to advance all the way to Double-A Trenton was an impressive move by Schmidt in 2019, and he was unfortunately robbed of a run on the ladder in 2020 when the Triple-A season was canceled.

This time, unfortunately, he doesn’t have outside forces to blame. Hopefully, this doesn’t quickly become a lost year once more.

Yankees Opening Day overreactions due to familiar flaws on full display

The New York Yankees lost Opening Day in the same fashion they've lost every important game they've played for the past five years.