Troubling Clarke Schmidt trend is getting tougher for Yankees to ignore

The 2025 New York Yankees are many things. Boring isn’t one of them. 

After picking up a big win over the Dodgers on Sunday and beating the Guardians in an American League rematch on Tuesday, they entered Wednesday’s game against Cleveland poised to build on the momentum generated by two big wins. 

Then they hit a Clarke Schmidt-sized wall. 

While the Yankees’ offense doesn’t have an excuse for going scoreless against Luis Ortiz and a Guardians bullpen that’s not as good as last year, Schmidt’s puzzling pitch selection on the mound is a more troubling storyline.

Clarke Schmidt returning to his worst behavior adds more Yankees uncertainty

Schmidt has been the definition of an average pitcher during his time with the Yankees (105 ERA+ in 363 2/3 innings), but he’s been extremely valuable this year since the Yankees’ rotation is made up of Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and the ghost of Gerrit Cole (better known as Ryan Yarbrough). 

And while Schmidt’s 4.04 ERA in 49 innings is firmly okay, his start against the Guardians on Wednesday showed the limitations he has as a pitcher. 

The Guardians jumped all over Schmidt in the first inning and tagged him for three runs on the back of a walk to Steven Kwan, a two-run home run from Angel Martínez and doubles from José Ramírez and Daniel Schneemann. All four of them were hitting left-handed.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering left-handed hitters have hit .277 against Schmidt in their career and are hitting .242 against him this year, compared to a .222 average against right-handed hitters. 

But, as yesterday showed, he’s still capable of giving up big innings against left-handers. 

Last year, Schmidt attacked left-handed hitters with a combination of his cutter (his most-used pitch at 35%) and his sinker (20.9%). 

This year, that sinker has all but disappeared, as Schmidt’s only thrown it 8.9% of the time this season. 

He threw the pitch four times against the Guardians, and it was all against left-handed batters. Kwan and Martínez grounded out against it, while Schneemann and Kwan (in his second inning at-bat) recorded singles off of it.

After the start, Schmidt said that he felt that his stuff felt “really crisp” after the first inning, which may be true; the Guardians didn’t get a runner into scoring position again until the sixth inning. 

But it doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t seem to be using his arsenal in the most effective way. 

Schmidt’s coming off a strong May (3.14 ERA in 28 2/3 innings), but his start on Tuesday was a reminder that he’s not a complete pitcher. 

The Yankees’ rotation is somehow seventh in baseball with a 3.77 ERA, but a large part of that is due to strong seasons from Fried and Rodón and a renaissance from Ryan Yarbrough. 

While Schmidt hasn’t been a net negative to the Yankees’ rotation, he also hasn’t been a net positive.