Clarke Schmidt’s sink-or-swim moment proved he belongs with Yankees

Should Yankees reliever-turned-starter-turned-reliever Clarke Schmidt be allowed to throw 60+ pitch, three-inning saves whenever he’s called upon regardless of how much steam he’s losing? No. Nope. No way.

But forget Tuesday’s ninth inning for a second. With a depleted bullpen turning more decrepit by the day, Schmidt’s lengthy outing in relief of Frankie Montas served as all the proof you need that there was no point in sending him to the minors. In fact, his demotion was nearly as pointless as Ron Marinaccio’s, especially if the team had full faith in Domingo German all along.

Schmidt tossed his “season high” in pitches Tuesday night (60, ignoring his work in the minors), entering to record the final out of the sixth and wriggle out of more trouble in the seventh after Brett Baty reached second. Faced with his toughest challenge yet in the seventh with two on and no out, he induced a Daniel Vogelbach double play and retired Jeff McNeil on a liner.

Then, he was asked to return for the ninth, given the chance to pull a “Lou Trivino” and go the distance, with very little backing behind him. No one foresaw a Montas/Schmidt piggyback when the trade deadline wrapped, and yet … here the Yankees were, pushing their supposed Triple-A depth piece to record 10 outs against the class of the National League.

He … almost got there, finishing off the first two batters in the ninth before flying open (as diagnosed by David Cone) and losing his release point when he was just one strike away (multiple times, against Tyler Naquin, Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte).

If not for Wandy Peralta, this could’ve ended very differently (and Schmidt knew it, thanking the left-hander profusely in the postgame). But even so, the Yankees bullpen is in a place where Aaron Boone believed his best option was 3.1 innings of someone who was in the Scranton rotation last week. That proves this team is running on fumes, yes, but it also shows the Yankees really never should’ve buried Schmidt in the first place.

Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt got his “butt” saved by Wandy Peralta, but he belongs

Though his impact has felt wide-reaching, Schmidt has only appeared in 17 big-league games this season. Of those 17, a surprising amount have been extremely high-leverage.

He’s picked up two three-inning saves (against KC in a relative blowout and Baltimore in what’s become a very important road win on July 24). He navigated through not one, but two scoreless extra innings (with the Manfred Runner) on May 24 against the O’s and June 10 against the Cubs, both wins. He threw three five-whiff, one-hit innings against the Rays in a 2-1 win on June 16.

Hell, he even bailed out Gerrit Cole with 3.1 brilliant shutout innings in ice-cold Detroit in his first signature moment in early April, just as the Yankees’ season felt like it was going off the rails. More often than not, he’s passed various tests, even if he couldn’t quite find the gumption to finish off strike three to any of the three game-ending batters he battled on Tuesday.

What followed Schmidt’s outing was equally hilarious. Wandy Peralta, who’s exclusively been allowed to sink or swim this year, and seems to enjoy having runners all over the place (except against the Reds … and Starling Marte … and Alex Verdugo …) finally secured one for the good guys against Francisco Lindor.

He didn’t throw a single strike.

Schmidt shouldn’t be the Yankees’ preferred closer in a theoretical postseason battle. But he doesn’t have to be their three-inning stopper to be an effective MLB option.

With all the evidence presented to them already this year, it’s a wonder it took a closer void for him to get bumped up a level or two in the pecking order.

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