Yankees' Clarke Schmidt to undergo Tommy John surgery Friday

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt will undergo Tommy John surgery on Friday, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Thursday.

Schmidt was dealing with right forearm tightness during his outing on July 3 and exited the game against Toronto after three innings and 55 pitches. He was then placed on the IL with what the team called right elbow tightness.

On Saturday, the initial MRI on his right elbow revealed that the pitcher is dealing with a torn UCL as the team was waiting for further testing to confirm the unfortunate news.

“Earlier on in the game it felt okay,” Schmidt told reporters after the start. “As the game progressed, it sort of tightened up a little bit on me. I felt like the whole night I was kind of guarding it a little bit on the breaking balls, really not ripping them or trying to get a lot behind them.”

The 29-year-old has pitched to a 3.32 ERA across 14 starts this season, including a strong June with a 1.95 ERA across five outings. Overall, Schmidt totaled 73 strikeouts over 78.2 IP on the year.

It’ll be his second time having Tommy John surgery after getting the procedure in April of 2017 while at the University of South Carolina. That didn’t stop New York from drafting the right-hander with the No. 16 overall pick in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft. He owns a 23-24 record with two saves over 97 games and 67 starts to go along with a 3.82 ERA and 384 strikeouts over six seasons in the bigs.

The Yankees called up Cam Schlittler in place of Schmidt to start on Wednesday, and he looked “under control” in his MLB debut, allowing three runs on four hits over 5.1 strong innings.

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