Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt to undergo a 2nd Tommy John surgery

New York Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt will undergo a second Tommy John surgery that will sideline him for the rest of this season and much of next season, manager Aaron Boone said Thursday.

Schmidt will have the surgery Friday, and the procedure will be performed by Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas. The 29-year-old right-hander will join Gerrit Cole as the second Yankee to undergo the surgery. Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner, was operated on in March.

Boone said before Saturday’s loss to the Mets that Schmidt was likely going to undergo the surgery after acknowledging he had an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Schmidt had an MRI last Friday was placed on the 15-day injured list because of right forearm soreness, one day after his start in Toronto was cut short following three innings.

Schmidt was 4-4 with a 3.32 ERA in 14 starts this season before getting hurt. He missed New York’s first 17 games recovering from right rotator cuff tendinitis.

“He’s become a really, really good starting pitcher in this league,” Boone said last week. “So it’s a tough blow. Every team has their share of these things that happen, and we’ve got to be able to absorb it and hopefully get some guys back in the mix soon and create another opportunity for somebody else to hopefully step in and pick up the slack.”

Schmidt had Tommy John surgery in May 2017, a month before the Yankees selected him with the 16th overall pick in the amateur draft out of South Carolina.

Now in his sixth major league season, Schmidt said he was dealing with soreness in his arm since a June 4 outing against Cleveland.

Schmidt left a June 21 start versus Baltimore after a career-high 103 pitches in seven hitless innings, part of a streak of 28 1/3 scoreless innings.

Cam Schlitter started for Schmidt on Wednesday, struck out major league home run leader Cal Raleigh twice on fastballs and will get another start after the All-Star break. Schlitter’ has pitched 5 1/3 innings with an average fastball velocity of 97.9 mph, and he threw New York’s seven fastest pitches this season.

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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