After suffering through not one but two six-game losing streaks in the past month, and plummeting in the American League East from seven games up in first place on May 28 to 2 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays by Thursday, the New York Yankees looked like they were on the verge of righting the ship.
They won three straight after manager Aaron Boone benched second baseman D.J. LeMahieu to give the position to All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr. On Wednesday, Yankees third-ranked right-handed pitching prospect Cam Schlittler gave the team another lift by making an encouraging big league debut.
The 24-year-old, 2022 seventh-round draft pick out of Northeastern University in Boston struck out seven Seattle Mariners in 5 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits and two walks on the way to being credited with his first big league win.
Dark Cloud Settles Over Yankees Mini-Win Streak
But just when the Yankees were seeing hopeful signs all around, the team was forced to make an announcement that cast a dark cloud over the good feelings around the Bronx on Thursday.
According to manager Aaron Boone, as reported by Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, Clarke Schmidt — the Yankees’ 2017 first-round draft pick, 16th overall, out of South Carolina — will go under the knife this week.
Schmidt, the Yankees announced, will have Tommy John surgery on Friday. The widely-used procedure is designed to repair the damaged ulnar collateral ligament. That’s a ligament in the inner elbow that plays an important role in keeping the elbow joint stable and functioning.
The 29-year-old Schmidt was placed on the injured list six days earlier. The previous night, July 3, the righty struggled to get through three innings in his 14th start of the season, allowing the Blue Jays three runs on three hits and two walks. He did not take the mound in the fourth inning.
The injury to Schmidt was listed as “right forearm tightness,” but on July 5 Boone said that Schmidt was facing the possibility of elbow surgery.
While the five-day delay in making the final decision was not explained, “it seems he and the Yankees took a few days to perhaps do some final tests before confirming the path forward,” according to writer Darragh McDonald of MLB Trade Rumors.
Not First Arm Ailment for Schmidt This Year
Schmidt also started the 2025 season on the injured list, not with an elbow ailment but instead due to tendinitis in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder. According to MLB.com Yankees corespondent Bryan Hoch, Schmidt believed the rotator cuff issue was caused by “attempting to build up stamina too quickly in March.”
Since making his season debut on April 16, Schmidt pitched 78 2/3 innings with a very respectable 3.32 ERA. He now joins 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and high-ranking pitching prospect Chase Hampton on the list of Yankee hurlers who underwent the Tommy John UCL repair procedure this season — and who will miss all or the remainder of the 2025 campaign as a result.
Recovery from Tommy John for a Major League pitcher typically takes between 14 and 18 months, putting the most optimistic assessments of when Schmidt may see action on a Yankees mound again no sooner than September of next year.
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