The New York Yankees announced another adjustment to Clarke Schmidt’s minor-league rehab assignment, sending the right-hander from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre back to Double-A Somerset.
The move, confirmed in a club press release, keeps the 30-year-old working through live innings as he tries to finish a long climb back from elbow surgery and contribute in September.
Schmidt last pitched in the majors in 2025 before undergoing an internal-brace procedure on his right elbow in July of that year. After a lengthy buildup that included live batting practice and simulated work, he finally faced hitters in games late last month.
His first rehab outing came with Somerset, where rust showed immediately: he allowed two runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning, including a two-run homer, while throwing 20 pitches.
He still recorded two strikeouts and said afterward that he felt good, which the organization treated as the more important takeaway at that stage.
A few days later the Yankees promoted him to Triple-A. In his second appearance he looked sharper, working two innings against Lehigh Valley. He allowed one run on three hits, struck out three, issued no walks and threw 23 pitches, 20 of them strikes.
He mixed a four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter, slider and knuckle curve, topping out at 95.1 mph and averaging 94.1 mph on the four-seamer—numbers close to what he showed before the operation. A subsequent outing produced two hitless frames, another incremental step.
The latest transfer back to Somerset does not appear to signal a setback so much as a fine-tuning of innings and matchups while the club manages his pitch count.
Because the Yankees plan to use him in relief rather than rebuild him as a starter, he does not need to stretch out to five or six innings. A handful of additional short appearances should be enough to determine whether he can help a bullpen that has already lost Fernando Cruz to a partial UCL tear.
Schmidt made 63 starts for New York from 2023 through 2025 and posted a 3.32 ERA in 14 outings last season before the injury.
He has described the recovery as relatively seamless and pointed to Gerrit Cole’s successful return from a similar procedure as a model. His stated goal remains modest: pitch a little this year and be ready for a full season in 2027.
If the current rehab sequence stays on track, the Yankees could still add him to the major-league roster before the regular season ends. For now he remains on assignment at Somerset, one more outing at a time.
