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TAMPA — Clarke Schmidt completing a bullpen session on Monday morning allowed the Yankees to exhale slightly, though they may not be out of the woods just yet.
It has been the days after Schmidt throws that have given him trouble, so the Yankees right-hander still has to get through those to prove his shoulder fatigue is just a minor speed bump instead of another dagger to the rotation. But the uber-confident Schmidt is hopeful it is the former instead of the latter.
“I wouldn’t be throwing if there was a concern of something major,” Schmidt said after tossing about 24 pitches in his bullpen session at Steinbrenner Field.
“Obviously was bouncing back a little slower this week and just being a little more cautious with the time of year. And losing a couple guys in the rotation, you don’t want to make a small thing a big thing. So just being smart and felt really good today.”
If everything goes smoothly over the next couple of days in Schmidt’s recovery, he could get back into game action on Wednesday or Thursday.
Doing so would keep open the possibility that he will be ready to start the season on time, though the Yankees were already planning on him starting the sixth game of the season to give him one extra live batting practice session after he was slowed earlier in camp by a cranky back.
“Honestly, I attest a lot of this to after the longer end of the season, the later in the season we played and went to the World Series, I kind of shut down longer from the throwing,” Schmidt said. “I shut down throwing longer than I should have. But it’s kind of like, you don’t really know until you go through it. It’s kind of trial by error.
“For me, I felt like I shut down a little bit too long and I’ve been playing catch up, kind of behind the eight ball a little bit. But feeling good now.”
The Yankees have already lost Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery) for the season and Luis Gil (lat strain) at least until June. Losing Schmidt for any kind of extended time would stretch their already thin depth even more.
Schmidt missed over three months in the middle of last season with a lat strain, but he is trying to use that experience to help him now.
He said Monday he threw through the lat issue “for a few weeks” last year and made what could have been a smaller thing a bigger issue.
“You learn from that mistake that you had last year, but it goes hand in hand: I wouldn’t be throwing right now if we felt or I felt like I was putting myself at a high risk,” Schmidt said, who notably threw on Monday without any medical staffer carefully monitoring him. “It’s just being smart and being cautious. But thankfully I haven’t had to shut down and put the ball down and revamp my workload. We feel like we’re in a good spot as far as the workload goes.”
