Clarke Schmidt doesn’t want to dwell on the past. He certainly doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, either, not with his recovery from Tommy John surgery still months from completion.
But looking back, the Yankees’ starter believes he’s identified a “major” culprit responsible for the arm issues that ended his 2025 season after just 14 starts. And he knows he’ll make a corresponding change whenever he returns to the mound.
“I think the No. 1 thing that played a factor was mid-season grip changes,” Schmidt recently told the Daily News. “You make grip changes, and you start to really put different stress on different areas of your forearm and stuff like that.”
Schmidt was referring to his and the Yankees pitching department’s decision to alter the grip on his sweeper early last season, creating two iterations of the breaking ball. The newer one was designed to give him more horizontal break and a better weapon against righties.
Schmidt started throwing the new sweeper in his May 6 start against the Padres. The pitch, he said, required him to “grip it really hard” and “torque it.” About a month later, Schmidt found that he was having a tough time recovering between starts as he battled soreness in his right forearm. But he “didn’t really think anything of it” and pitched through the aches for a bit. He even had a 28.1-inning scoreless streak in June.
“I was getting a lot of really good results with it, so it’s hard to be like, ‘Oh, let’s stop throwing it,’” Schmidt said of the new sweeper. “It was like a double-edged sword.”
Schmidt’s final start of the season came on July 3. Now, moving forward, he plans on sticking to his old sweeper grip and will “definitely” ditch the newer one.
He added that if he wants to adjust his grips or add a new pitch in the future, he’s more likely to implement those changes in the offseason when he’s still building up his arm.
Outside of those thoughts, the 30-year-old is fixated on the here and now.
Schmidt has been playing catch at 90 feet in Yankees camp, working to refine his mechanics in an effort to put less strain on his arm, which underwent the internal brace version of Tommy John surgery. He hopes to start throwing bullpens toward the end of spring training or shortly thereafter and has his sights set on returning sometime in the second half of the season. However, he knows timelines can change in a hurry after some nagging spring injuries delayed the start of his campaign last year.
“Obviously, I have goals and check marks that I want to hit, as far as when I want to come back and stuff like that, but it’s not written in stone,” Schmidt said, adding that he’ll stay in Tampa after spring training ends.
Schmidt has had some teammates help him throughout his rehab process, as Gerrit Cole is further ahead in his own recovery from a Tommy John operation. Meanwhile, Anthony Volpe is working his way back from offseason shoulder surgery.
Schmidt, who also underwent Tommy John surgery in college, said he’s been able to lean on Joe Bello, the Yankees’ major league physical therapist and rehab coordinator, as well. He’s also spent some downtime reading up on the rehabs of other athletes, including a personal favorite, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey.
Recovery has allowed Schmidt to work on other aspects of his life, too, whether it be his spirituality, improving his sleep routine and diet, or learning to stay present.
“I’m still learning,” he emphasized, but the latter has become a guiding principle throughout his rehab process.
Feeling sorry for himself, Schmidt realizes, will get him nowhere. And rushing along is a recipe for disaster.
But staying laser-focused on the work that remains helps him block out the FOMO that comes with watching his teammates prep for Opening Day.
He also believes it will help him come back stronger.
“You have to have goals and things that push you, but you can’t look too far ahead or reflect on the past, like, ‘Dang, I wish this didn’t happen’ or ‘Why me?’ It’s not like that at all,” Schmidt said. “I’m very hungry. I’m very driven, maybe more driven than I’ve ever been. Everything that I do right now is for baseball.
“It’s like 24/7, this is all I care about. All I think about is recovering and getting back. So I don’t know how long I’ll feel like that, but I definitely feel very, very motivated, and I’m very happy with where I’m at.”
