TAMPA — Years ago, Clark Schmidt arrived at spring training prepared to pitch in an as-yet-undefined role, but a spot on the roster was far from guaranteed.
The right-handed pitcher has a different feeling after completing his first full season as a major league starting pitcher this spring.
“Every time I come into the clubhouse, I feel a certain level of comfort,” Schmidt said Friday. “I’m obviously out here fighting and giving my all every day. But I feel like I’ve been looking over my shoulder a little bit up until now.”
The only way things could change this spring is if the Yankees actually sign Blake Snell and the rest of the rotation remains healthy, but those two propositions are far from certain and even unlikely to happen. .
Schmidt understands the fans’ desire for the Yankees to get a new starting pitcher like Snell, but he’s not wrapped up in that.
“I get that. I’m a fan of sports teams, too,” Schmidt said Friday. “If I had the best free agents, I’d want them too. But if I sit here and worry and think about all the rumors and everything, I’m going to worry all day long. Probably.
“So, for me, it’s like, if they get him, they get him. If they don’t, I understand why they don’t. For me, I go to work every day. I’m going to work on it, do what I have to do, and go from there.”
Schmidt, who served as the Yankees’ second-most reliable starter behind Gerrit Cole last season, will do so with a solid foundation to build on this year. Last spring, due to injuries to other starters, he suspended rotation camp and remained there throughout the season despite suffering a lump his first six weeks.
In a key step in his development (a mostly rough year for the team), Schmidt posted a career-high 4.64 ERA in 159 innings and racked up numerous try-by-errors. He also took a full season course from Cole, who served as a mentor to Schmidt.
Given all this, the new 28-year-old said he believes he can reach another level this year.
“I’m definitely ready to take the big step,” he said.
To do so, Schmidt spent the offseason sorting out some of the issues that went off the rails by the end of last season.
He later realized he was “leaning too far” on the mound, in part due to the fatigue he felt after logging more innings than his career-high late in the season. His bad posture caused his mechanics to change and he “snipped everything too much,” he said. That made the cutter (which he introduced last spring) “really nasty” and ruined the sinker.
With the help of Trackman and a slow-motion camera to watch how the ball comes out of his hands, he tried to change the direction of the ball so he could run more horizontally with the sinker while still being effective. I focused on my delivery to stay in the back. of his cutter.
“So right now I’m trying to get a little bit taller, get more on my back foot, stay behind the ball more, and my velo has increased a lot this spring,” Schmidt said. “I feel like it’s going to be easier for me.”
Schmidt averaged 96.4 mph with his sinker during Thursday’s live batting practice session, which he said was the second-highest average speed of his career.
Coupled with feeling refreshed thanks to an offseason focus on accelerating recovery (doing more yoga and focusing on better nutrition), Schmidt and the Yankees believe he is in a strong position to take another leap forward this year. I feel it.
“I don’t want to wear a cap.” [his ceiling]Because the reality is we’ve seen him get better and better,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully this year we can take that improvement a step further and get him a little more consistent. I’m not really sure what that ceiling is.”
