Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt set to put ‘cranky’ back to the test

TAMPA — Clarke Schmidt echoed Aaron Boone in essentially deeming his back issue a nothingburger.

But that will be put to the test on Friday, when Schmidt is scheduled to throw a bullpen session — his first since last Friday, after which experienced what he described as “general soreness” in his back, leading the Yankees to throttle back his buildup over the past week.

“It’s early, so we don’t want to push through anything crazy and make an issue,” Schmidt said on his 29th birthday Thursday morning at Steinbrenner Field. “But yeah, I think in the ramp-up phase, throwing some lives across the street [at the minor league complex], I had some extra soreness after that, so just taking it easy and starting that ramp-up back now.”

Aside from Schmidt and Marcus Stroman, who missed the first two days of workouts but is set to start Friday’s Grapefruit League opener, every other Yankees starter has faced hitters at least twice since camp started.

Schmidt said he threw live multiple times before camp started, and the Yankees have said that because he came into camp ahead, they decided to slow him down over the past week to get the “cranky” back dealt with.

Schmidt was unsure when he might get into games, but first he has to get through Friday’s side session.

“Sometimes you have stuff that’ll pop up [in the buildup phase] and then sometimes you’ll be smooth sailing,” Schmidt said. “It kind of differed with going to the World Series this year. I think our buildups were a little bit different and it was case to case with how you wanted to handle it and how much time you wanted to take off. So there was an adjustment period with that as far as what I wanted to do with my throwing program and what was best for me.”

Still, like Boone, Schmidt did not seem concerned about his availability to start the season on time.

“I put a lot of work in on my body,” Schmidt said. “Just a little soreness and trying to be smart with it.”