Yankees promote No. 5 prospect to Trenton
One of the Yankees’ top prospects is set to get his first taste of Double-A.
Clarke Schmidt, the organization’s first-round pick in 2017 out of South Carolina, was promoted from High-A Tampa on Thursday and will start on the mound for the Thunder on Friday night at Reading. Schmidt takes the roster spot of Michael King, who moved back up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The 23-year-old right-hander made 13 appearances (12 starts) for Tampa this year, posting a 3.77 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 63.1 innings.
The Thunder need starting pitching depth with the Eastern League playoffs less than a month away. Both King and Nick Nelson earned recent promotions to Triple-A. Garrett Whitlock (shoulder surgery) is done for the season.
So Schmidt, rated by MLB Pipeline as the Yankees’ fifth-best prospect, arrives in Trenton at a critical time.
“Schmidt pitches off of a 9294 mph fastball that peaks at 96 and generates ground balls with heavy sink,” says MLB.com’s scouting report. “While both his low-80s curveball and mid80s slider can be plus pitches at times, they sometimes lack consistency and he has shelved the slider to focus on improving his curve. There are days when his tumbling changeup is his best secondary offering, though his breaking balls are generally more reliable.”
King, the Yankees’ No. 20 prospect, has been working through mechanical kinks following elbow discomfort that kept him off the mound until early July. The right-hander returns to Scranton following a bounce back outing last Saturday in Trenton. King hurled 90 pitches for the first time in nearly a year and allowed two earned runs in 5.2 innings.