As Gerrit Cole inches closer to returning, Yankees put Clarke Schmidt on the injured list with a right lat strain

ANAHEIM, Calif. — On a day Gerrit Cole said he could next be headed for a rehab assignment, one of the Yankees’ top pitchers who has helped mitigate the loss of the club’s ace headed to the injured list.

The Yankees announced Thursday afternoon that righthander Clarke Schmidt had been placed on the IL with a right lat strain and that righthander Cody Morris had been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as the corresponding roster move.

Schmidt will not throw for 4-6 weeks, Aaron Boone said.

“It’s going to be a while,” the manager stated before Thursday night’s game against the Angles.

Schmidt had an MRI Wednesday and saw Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles Thursday afternoon. Cole saw ElAttrache for a second opinion back in March when he was diagnosed with right elbow inflammation.

Cody Poteet will start on Saturday in San Francisco.

The 28-year-old Schmidt, who had an up-and-down first full season in the big leagues as a starter in 2023, so far has enjoyed a breakthrough 2024, going 5-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 11 starts.

“Obviously, Clarke’s been one of the guys that’s been pitching so well,” Boone said. “Stinks for him. Hopefully, we’ll have him down, get him on the mend, and hopefully get him back at some point.”

Schmidt did, in retrospect, drop a hint something was amiss after the most recent of those starts, Sunday in San Diego. After needing 101 pitches to get through five innings, and allowing two runs (one earned), three hits and three walks, Schmidt characterized his day as “physically . . . one of those outings where you don’t feel like your best.”

Boone said that wasn’t necessarily a red flag. That came in Schmidt’s recovery in the days that followed.

“Coming out of his last game, he just wasn’t able to recover,” Boone said. “He wasn’t able to do his throwing that he would normally do in between starts this time through so we sent him to get an MRI.”

Cole, meanwhile, appears ready for the next step in his rehab — a process that will not be sped up in the wake of the Schmidt news.

The righthander threw a 43-pitch simulated game Thursday at the club’s minor-league complex in Tampa and afterward said he felt “good” and that a rehab assignment could follow.

“I’ll have to double-check, but it seems like the direction it’s going,” Cole told local Tampa baseball reporter John Brophy, the lone media member in attendance.

Boone said before Thursday’s game “that’s definitely a possibility” of Cole next pitching in a game.

“We’ll see how he recovers,” Boone added. “I actually talked to Gerrit [earlier]. Sounds like everything went well today, he was pretty pleased with his outing and just how he felt. Assuming everything goes well, good chance a rehab [game] is next.”

Whenever Cole begins his rehab assignment, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner’s official 30-day rehab clock will start (it’s 20 days for position players).

That would mean a return to the Yankees’ rotation around July 1 — give or take a few days depending on how many rehab outings he and the Yankees believe the pitcher needs (and Cole will very much have a say in that).

Cole, who started his throwing program April 8 — throwing at 60 feet on flat ground — has progressed slowly but steadily. He threw 15 pitches in his first bullpen May 3 and increased to 20 pitches three days later. On May 10, Cole upped that total to 29 during a bullpen at Tropicana Field (the Yankees were in town to play the Rays), mixing in 13 breaking balls.

Two more bullpen sessions followed and, on May 21, Cole faced hitters for the first time.

“I’ve had a few significant days, but I don’t find them any more or less significant than the other,” Cole said on May 20 of the significance of finally facing hitters. “Sometimes it’s just like a day of ‘firsts.’ It’s usually a fun day. First day throwing, first day on a mound, first day facing hitters, first day doing two ‘ups’ [simulating multiple innings].”

He paused briefly and laughed.

“I feel like probably the biggest [significant step] will be my first start back,” he said. “That’ll be the biggest one. I can probably say that will, certainly.”

If Cole indeed is in a rehab game next week, that step will be the biggest to date, certainly.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.