Closing the book on Clarke.

 

It would be possible to say that Clarke Schmidt has shown signs—well, more accurately, occasional inklings—of developing into a good, middle-of-the-rotation starter in 2023...save for the fact that he turns 28 this winter.

Clarke almost got out of last night with what passes for a decent performance by a major-league—or at least, Yankees—starter these days, allowing two runs (only one earned) in five innings.

But not quite. With two out, nobody on, and an 0-2 count on Yankees nemesis George Springer, Schmidt threw a borderline pitch that the ump called a ball. Clarke was halfway to the dugout by that time, and it was clear he was not happy. Three pitches later, Springer was on first with a walk. Two pitches after that, and Bo Bichette, another of the BJs merry underachievers, had put the ball in the seats, and that concluded your YES entertainment for the evening.

Hey, it would be forgivable if Schmidt—who looks a little like a cross between an extra on Gomer Pyle and the Star Trek crew member who gets eaten first on the new planet (didn't those guys ever do some surveillance?)—were a mere 21-year-old stripling, his emotions raw.

But he ain't. Instead, it's clear that Clarke has developed neither maturity nor endurance, nor much of a fastball, at that age when it's almost time for major-league players to start on the downhill schneid.

Schmidt was a typically weird, Cashman pick to begin with—in fact, the Yankees' FIRST pick in the 2017 draft. Sure, he'd been a starter with a leading college program, at South Carolina, but what he had done there was hardly overwhelming:  2-2, 4.81 in his freshman year; 9-5, 3.40 as a sophomore. 

He got off to a great start in his junior season, going 4-2, 1.34, in 9 starts...when his arm gave out and he had to be derailed for Tommy John surgery. Which for Brian Cashman was like waving catnip before a tabby.

By 2017, it had been TEN YEARS since Cashie had picked first another pitcher requiring TJ surgery—plus repair of a broken hip—the late, unlamented Andrew Brackman, who by this time had been out of organized ball for 4 years, without winning a single game in the majors.

But far be it for Brian Cashman to ever learn something from experience. Clarke was his for a mere $2.184 mill in bonus money, and Schmidt's long, slow travail through the minors was on.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about our Schmidtie is how FEW innings he's thrown. He still has more on the college level—229—than anywhere else. Over his whole minor-league career, he was 8-11 in 185 innings but, not being named Estevan Florial, he was brought up anyway, to see what he had.

This was a good decision, at least, but the answer was: not much.  

Clarke is now 9-9, 4.65 this season, and 14-15, 4.35 through the 221 1/3 innings he's pitched in the show. He gives absolutely no indication of ever being more than a serviceable middle reliever—not anything like what a No. 1 draft pick is supposed to be.

But don't expect this to deter The Brain. Schmidt will no be projected as our No. 2 or 3 starter next year, when we can expect that maybe, just maybe, he might pitch into the sixth inning. And even keep his cool on the playing field. And right now, no doubt, Cashman is combing hungrily through the lists of college students on the TJ list...