Breaking Out: Schmidt's development crucial for NY

2022 has been a breakout season for Clarke Schmidt. The 26-year-old right-hander was selected by the New York Yankees with the 16th overall pick of the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft out of the University of South Carolina and had pitched just 12.2 Big League innings in his career before this season. Now, he’s become a critical piece of New York’s bullpen and owns a 2.67 ERA over 27 frames with the Yankees this year. He credits this ascension to his adoption of the “whirly” slider late last season, a breaking ball that has swept through the New York Yankees’ system.

“It is definitely a big deal,” Schmidt said of the whirly. “I think a lot of the guys are throwing it and I think a lot of guys are trying to learn it if they don’t have it. It’s something that changed my career for the better.”

Yankees All-Stars Nestor Cortes and Clay Holmes are just a few of the many pitchers in the organization who have implemented the whirly into their pitch repertoire. Schmidt started throwing the pitch last July, but the success wasn’t immediate. In fact, the opposite was true.

“When I first started throwing it, it was horrible,” Schmidt explained. “It was the worst pitch I could throw. Whenever I’d throw it, it’d be listed as a changeup because it was going the wrong way.”

The whirly is characterized by its tight, horizontal movement that moves away from like-handed hitters. Former RailRiders’ Pitching Coach, and current Yankees’ Assistant Pitching Coach, Desi Druschel is considered the chief architect of the pitch. Many pitchers in the Yankees’ organization, Schmidt included, have paired it with a two-seam fastball or sinker that runs in on like-handed hitters (also known as arm side run). This allows pitchers to attack hitters on each side of the plate. Schmidt isn’t the first pitcher to struggle with honing the offering at first, but he stayed committed to it and eventually broke through after a few weeks of working with his grip.

“It didn’t really click until I was throwing here (at PNC Field) one day,” Schmidt said. “I had someone give me a tip on it and once I started listening to that and fiddling with it and changing it in mid-August, it really changed my game. I think if you look down the stretch when I started throwing that slider, all my outings were just completely different.”

Schmidt had a 2.81 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 32 innings over his last eight appearances of the 2021 season from August 18 onward. That strong stretch included the first six games of his career at the Triple-A level pitching with the RailRiders. Schmidt started his career with a four-pitch mix of four-seam fastball, sinker, changeup and curveball. The whirly slider was the missing piece that Schmidt spent years searching for to put him over the top.

“I always had the big curveball,” Schmidt explained. “I needed something to kind of blend that breaking ball, especially against lefties. I always had that big breaking ball, but I had nothing that I could get into the strike zone that was sharp and small and so that’s where the whirly came in.”

Schmidt’s heavy whirly usage has carried over into this season and helped him earn a spot on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. The 26-year-old righty has spent most of the season with New York as 15 of his 20 appearances in 2022 have come at the Big League level.

“It’s the best,” Schmidt said of pitching for the Yankees. “There’s nothing better than being up there with those guys and especially when you’re winning and you’re in first place like that…It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I’m a kid and to be able to do it on the biggest platform in the world and with the best team in the world, it’s hard to put into words how grateful and thankful I am to have that opportunity.”

Schmidt is throwing the whirly 33.6% of the time in the majors this year, which is nearly 12% higher than any of his other four pitches. It has been the most effective offering for Schmidt as hitters have a .131 batting average with a minuscule .167 slugging percentage against the devastating breaking ball. In under a year, Schmidt went from struggling to throw the whirly correctly to now dominating the best hitters on the planet with the pitch.

“This whole year I’ve been so comfortable throwing it,” Schmidt explained. “In Spring Training I was throwing it, during the season I’m throwing it and I honestly think it’s going to change my career. I think having that pitch just makes the at-bats a lot easier for me to navigate through knowing that I have that strike percentage pitch and something that I get swing and miss on. It’s been really good for me so I’m excited to have that as part of my repertoire now.”

While Schmidt has primarily been used as a reliever this year, he was drafted as a starting pitcher and that’s still the long-term plan for him. He spent a month with the RailRiders earlier this summer to build up his innings and get stretched out in anticipation of returning to a starting role with New York either later this season or down the road in 2023 and beyond. Schmidt made four starts for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre between June 30 and July 17 and allowed just one run in three of them. He also increased his pitch count in each outing, working up to a season-high 68 in his most recent start.

“Any time you start, whether it’s here (Triple-A) or the Big Leagues, you try to at least get as much adrenaline as you can,” Schmidt explained. “You want to build up these starts because you want to almost repeat the same stress that you have up there (in MLB). If you go up there and you’re throwing at Fenway or whatever it is and you have tons of fans, there’s just a stress and a level to it that you’re not expecting. So, you have to be able to kind of control your emotions. I try to treat these starts like it’s a Big League outing.”

Injuries to several Yankees relievers necessitated Schmidt being called up earlier than expected on July 23 and he logged the first save of his professional career one day later. Schmidt’s primary value to New York this season has been his ability to pitch in multiple roles for them. He’s appeared as a spot starter, long reliever and high-leverage bullpen piece. In many ways, he’s become Yankees’ Manager Aaron Boone’s Swiss army knife.

“The Yankees really decided to invest a lot in player development and it shows,” Schmidt explained. “I can’t speak for other organizations, but from things that you hear, I would say this is one of the best for player development…These guys are good at finding what you’re good at and making you even better at it and making sure that you hone in on those things. I couldn’t be in a better organization as far as development goes.”

With the whirly at his disposal, the sky is the limit for Schmidt, especially as he becomes more comfortable throwing the pitch. It’s not known how New York plans to deploy him over the final quarter of the season, but it’s clear that Schmidt will be ready for anything that’s asked of him.

“You never really know what role you’re going to be in until your name is called,” Schmidt said. “Especially with pitching, there are so many things – there’s back-end relieving, long guy, starting – it’s really just kind of like whenever my name’s called, you’re excited to be in that role.”

Stats current as of July 26, 2022