TAMPA — As he tries to compete for the fifth spot in the Yankees’ rotation, Clarke Schmidt has a new weapon in his back pocket.

Schmidt spent the offseason adding a cutter to his arsenal, which he hopes can help him be more effective against left-handed hitters, regardless of what role he ends up in.

The new pitch came at the suggestion of the Yankees at the end of last season. Assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel and others sat down with Schmidt and told him that a cutter could help take him to the next level, especially against lefties, who have hit .297 with a .870 OPS against him in his big league career.

“We incorporated it and it kind of took off,” Schmidt said. “It was better than they expected at first. … It’s improved a ton.”

Because of the natural cut that Schmidt already had on his four-seam fastball, and its high spin rate, the Yankees thought learning a cutter might come easily for him.

The day after his meeting with Druschel, Schmidt watched an Instagram video from Trevor Bauer on how to throw a cutter. Using that as a starting point, Schmidt began to fiddle with the grip the following day while playing catch and was surprised by how quickly he felt comfortable with it.

The right-hander then began trying it out in bullpens and the metrics came back strong on it. He sent videos of those workouts back to the Yankees and Gerrit Cole, who has served as a mentor for Schmidt and started throwing his own cutter last season. They were likewise encouraged.

“His is really good, like right out of the chute,” Cole said. “He just sent me some stuff and I told him he was nasty, really. Because it was nasty.”

Schmidt could certainly use another weapon against lefties. Last year, he had success throwing curveballs to left-handed hitters, who hit just .067 with a .067 slugging percentage against the pitch. But lefties hit .429 with a .643 slugging percentage against his four-seam fastball, .375 with a 1.125 slugging percentage against his slider, .286 with a .429 slugging percentage against his changeup and .333 with a .444 slugging percentage against his sinker.

“The four-seam to the lefties has always underperformed maybe a little bit,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “Everything he’s thrown has gone away or [had] bigger shapes. To throw a hard cutter that can control the upper quadrant and get in on the lefties’ hands, I think that’s gonna be huge for him.”

Manager Aaron Boone said Saturday that the cutter could be a “difference maker” for Schmidt, who leaned heavily on his slider during two rough postseason outings in relief last October.

When Schmidt threw his first live batting practice session last week at the team’s player development complex, the Yankees loaded up left-handed bats against him. He found it easy to get inside on them, which he had never been able to do previously.

“Obviously it’s a new pitch so I’m still kind of, not walking on eggshells with it but you gotta learn it, learn how to throw it,” he said. “But I’ve been excited with the command of it and how comfortable I feel with it already. It’s only going to get better.”

The development of the pitch could also prove critical in Schmidt’s chances of winning the fifth starter spot out of camp. Domingo German may be the early favorite to fill the spot vacated by Frankie Montas, who needs shoulder surgery, but Schmidt plans on putting up a fight for it.

“If they want to put me somewhere else, whether it would be in the pen like they did last year or that kind of hybrid role like last year, then that’d be the case,” Schmidt said. “But for me right now, where my headspace is, I’m going to go for that rotation spot.”