Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt embraces growing pains in first spring outing: ‘The stuff was sharp’

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Clarke Schmidt’s first spring training start didn’t go as planned on the scoreboard, but the Yankees’ right-hander still left the mound with a smile. Making his delayed Grapefruit League debut after dealing with early back stiffness, Schmidt surrendered three runs on four hits and a walk over 1 2/3 innings in New York’s 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Despite the rough stat line, he viewed the outing as a success.

Schmidt’s sinker experiment

Schmidt’s focus wasn’t on the results but rather on the process. The right-hander used the start as a testing ground for his refined sinker, intentionally leaving it over the plate to gauge movement and effectiveness. While some mistakes led to hard contact, he was encouraged by how the pitch felt.

“Velocity was really good. I was happy with the stuff,” Schmidt said. “I was just trying to go out there and fill the zone up early on. I’m really happy with how I felt and the stuff was really sharp.”

His sinker, now thrown with a one-seam grip instead of the traditional two-seam, sat around 95 mph and topped out at 96. But his command was inconsistent, leading to early damage.

In the first inning, Adley Rutschman lined a one-out single up the middle before Colton Cowser followed with a base hit through the right side. Schmidt then grooved another sinker to Ryan Mountcastle, who crushed it the opposite way for a three-run homer. The Yankees’ right-hander mixed in more cutters in the second inning, racking up two strikeouts before being pulled at 38 pitches.

“I just wanted to go out there and throw strikes,” Schmidt said. “I was trying to attack the zone and fill it up. And then we’ll move to the edges from there.”

Game Recap: Orioles 6, Yankees 2

Baltimore extended its lead to 4-0 in the fourth when top prospect Coby Mayo led off with a single against Yankees closer Devin Williams and later scored on a double by Vimael Machín. New York responded in the bottom half, as Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt ripped back-to-back doubles to start the frame. Dominic Smith, a non-roster invitee pushing for a roster spot, followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Reliever Brandon Leibrandt kept the Yankees within striking distance with three scoreless innings, but the Orioles put the game away in the eighth. A throwing error by substitute third baseman Tyler Hardman allowed TT Bowens to reach, setting up an RBI double by Hudson Haskin and a run-scoring single from Machín to make it 6-2.

Things didn’t go any better for the Yankees’ other split-squad team, which was routed 9-1 by the Pirates in Bradenton. Facing reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, New York’s offense struggled to generate much of anything. Skenes dominated over four innings, allowing just one run—a solo homer by Trent Grisham—while touching 100 mph multiple times and inducing a 27% whiff rate on his five-pitch arsenal.

Meanwhile, Yankees prospect Cam Schlittler endured his roughest outing of the spring. The right-hander was tagged for six runs across three-plus innings, with Oneil Cruz launching a 115-mph, three-run homer off an 0-2 slider. The Pirates tacked on five more runs in the fourth, highlighted by a pair of RBI doubles from Ji Hwan Bae and Adam Frazier.

The Yankees have a scheduled off day on Wednesday before resuming play Thursday in Lakeland against the Tigers. Max Fried is slated to start against Detroit’s top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe, though the game will not be televised.

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