Clarke Schmidt believes he’s living proof.
Schmidt feels as if he, Nestor Cortes and Luis Gil are proof of the Yankees’ pitching development.
Proof of a clear pathway for Yankees prospects to reach the team’s MLB rotation. Proof that chemistry can truly be beneficial.
One of the Yankees’ greatest strengths throughout a dominant start to the season has been their lights-out pitching.
And in terms of starters, over half that production has come from homegrown arms so far.
Schmidt, Cortes and Gil — who all came up through the Yankees’ minor league system — are scheduled to start the Yankees’ final three games of their current series against the Mariners.
“It’s obviously a big deal,” Schmidt told The Post prior to Monday’s series opener in The Bronx. “All three of us have benefited a lot from the Yankees’ development and the information that they have and ways to get guys better. It’s been really fun to be able to go up through the system, create relationships with guys at the bottom levels and obviously work my way up to the top. Now everybody is kind of like family.
“I have relationships that will last for a lifetime. To be able to share these memories with Nestor, Gil, all these other guys and kind of put proof in the pudding of the Yankees’ development and how good they are at developing pitching and how good they are at finding pitching.”
Schmidt owns a 2.49 ERA, Cortes has a 3.56 ERA and Gil has 2.39 ERA in 28 combined starts among the three.
“They’ve performed excellently,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The consistency of our staff has been the tone-setter for us. Coming up on 50 games, I’ve said it over and over again, our starters have given us a chance to win a ballgame night in and night out, and that’s a great place to start. They’ve been excellent.”
Schmidt, Cortes and Gil were teammates in Triple-A Scranton in 2021 before Cortes was called up to the big-league roster.
Gil made his MLB debut later that year, while Schmidt made his one year earlier in 2020.
They’ve each followed far different paths.
Schmidt was a first-round pick with high expectations. Gil was acquired in a trade with the Twins, and was relatively unknown at 19 years old.
Cortes is on his third stint with the Yankees, and went through the minors each time.
“If we can be any type of inspiration to any other Yankees or any other players coming up, obviously we’ll find joy in that,” Schmidt said. “For us, … this game is really tough, there’s a lot of adjustments we have to make, a lot of growth you have to learn from, it’s not like you just come up here and have it figured out.”