BRIDGEWATER — A campaign that started with Clayton Beeter fulfilling his boyhood dream nearly ended as a lost year. But it’s not over yet for the Yankees right-handed pitching prospect. Despite being shut down with shoulder soreness after last pitching for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 15, Beeter was finally activated last Saturday and initiated a de facto rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset. “My shoulder started bugging me,” Beeter said Tuesday when the Patriots began their final homestand of the year. “I had to take some time off, build back up, and obviously it takes a big chunk of the season away, so that’s not fun. But I’m feeling good now, back healthy.” Beeter, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Yankees’ No. 18 prospect, hurled 25 pitches in the eighth and ninth innings of Somerset’s 8-2 win Tuesday against New Hampshire, retiring the Fisher Cats in order with three strikeouts. Three days earlier in Binghamton, he pitched one scoreless inning on 12 pitches with two strikeouts. “Where I’m at right now is basically what my goal was when I went to rehab was to get back for two, three weeks at the end of the season and just get one or two innings in at a time,” said Beeter, who expects to return to Scranton soon. The plan is for Beeter to slowly build his pitch counts strictly as a reliever because there’s not enough time left to be a starter until next year. When asked if he thinks he could be in the mix to pitch for the Yankees in the playoffs this year as a reliever — he’s on the club’s 40-man roster — he was unequivocal. “Yeah, that’s what I hope,” Beeter said. “Obviously I’m not making those decisions, but yeah, I’m definitely out here with the mindset of trying to pitch my way up to be an option, for sure.” Beeter, acquired from the Dodgers in the Joey Gallo trade in August of 2022, was in the mix to be the Yankees’ fifth starter out of spring training after Gerrit Cole was shut down with elbow discomfort. That spot ultimately went to Luis Gil, but Beeter still made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster out of camp. The 25-year-old made his major league debut on March 29 in Houston and retired the Astros in the bottom of the ninth inning on only three fastballs. It was an extra special career turning point for Beeter, a Texas native who had about 20 family members in attendance at Minute Maid Park. “It was awesome,” Beeter said. “That’s the dream, right? Especially going to Houston in a sold-out crowd was electric, and then being able to pitch in my home state for my debut, which was pretty cool.” Beeter, though, fell victim to a numbers crunch and was optioned back to Scranton the next day. He understood the reality of the business, embraced the chance to instead be starting games for the RailRiders, and pitched to a 2.53 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 32 innings (seven starts) before the shoulder injury. “I feel like it really helped me be able to still pitch well,” Beeter said. “Each day I was just trying to stay ready to be able to go back up.” The shoulder issue didn’t require surgery, but it also wasn’t something that he could pitch through. Still, it was uncharted territory for a player who had never been on the injured list since his pro career began in 2021. His last injury happened to his elbow during his first semester at Texas Tech in 2017, when he underwent Tommy John surgery. The Yankees shut him down for six weeks before he resumed throwing in early July. Beeter rehabbed in Tampa with physical therapy and was able to spend more time with his wife, which helped him persevere through the mental challenges of a setback to his breakthrough year. “It was actually really good,” Beeter said. “I kind of look at rehab as sometimes it can be a good thing, especially going through my TJ in college days. I felt like I got a lot stronger and got my arm stronger in places that you don’t really train as much as you get to in rehab, so some good things come out of it, for sure.” Yankees GM Brian Cashman told the New York media in July that there was a chance Beeter would miss the remainder of the season. Beeter said Tuesday that they were unsure how fast the buildup would be to get back into games, but fortunately he was ready after nine weeks of throwing. Fans can expect to see him as primarily a faster/slider pitcher while coming out of the bullpen, since he believes those are enough to use in shorter spurts. But long-term, he remains confident in the development of his changeup and curveball. He just doesn’t want to lose sight of his bread-and-butter pitches, which he got good feedback on during spring training from Yankees players like catcher Jose Trevino. “Everyone likes to talk about me needing four pitches or whatever, but what helped me the most in spring training was my fastball,” Beeter said. “I started throwing my fastball more, threw it for strikes more, got ahead more, and just the efficiency of that, some of the pitching coaches and catchers up there were really good in letting me know that I have a good fastball and I can throw it more than I was, and I don’t need to nibble around with every different pitch. Just attack people with my heater and use my secondaries as supplements basically.” As for the shoulder injury happening about a year after he became a fully stretched out starter, Beeter doesn’t believe he needs to alter how he trains going forward. “I’m not changing anything,” Beeter said. “I think it was just one of those things, first big league spring training, a little high workload in spring training, but I learned from it and I’ll handle it better next year.”