Hours before Game 3 of the 2024 ALDS, Aaron Boone compared that night’s starter to a prospect with six games of big league experience.
Boone explained how Clarke Schmidt, an established member of the Yankees’ rotation, has always been “super confident.” Never mind that results didn’t warrant such self-assuredness at the start of the righty’s career.
“It reminds me of what I see in Will Warren right now,” the manager continued.
Boone repeated that comparison earlier this spring with Warren attending his second big league camp. Last year, the 25-year-old arrived in Tampa as a top prospect and eventually entered the running to be the Yankees’ fifth starter after Gerrit Cole went down with elbow inflammation.
That job ultimately went to Luis Gil, who ended up winning Rookie of the Year. Warren, meanwhile, posted a 5.91 ERA over 109.2 innings at Triple-A and a 10.32 ERA over 22.2 innings in the majors.
Used primarily as a spot starter in The Show, Warren called last season “a huge learning experience.” The right-hander would like to “close the book” on a trying introduction to the big leagues, but he also believes there’s value in the times he struggled.
Conversations with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón have reminded him of that.
“There’s stuff we talk about that I can relate back to last year,” Warren said. “’Oh, I remember when I did this,’ and now I can use that in a positive manner.”
Warren, scheduled to start against the Cardinals on Wednesday, is also returning to an old pitch: his curveball.
The deuce made an appearance in his spring debut on Feb. 21, when he totaled two scoreless innings, one hit, one walk and three strikeouts against the Rays.
“I didn’t throw it for two years,” Warren said, “so I’m still trying to figure all that out.”
Warren had a curveball when the Yankees drafted him out of high school in 2021, but he stopped throwing it midway through 2023. The Yankees “banged it,” he said, because they noticed him “climbing arm angles.” In other words, Warren was releasing his curve from a different slot than some of his other pitches, which include fastballs, sinkers, sweepers and changeups.
Coincidentally, it was Schmidt’s knuckling curve that inspired Warren’s attempt at a revival.
After watching Schmidt throw his offering last year, Warren reported to Tampa in early January. There, he began discussing the reimplementation of his own curve with senior director of pitching Sam Briend and assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne.
“’Let’s work on bringing the curveball back and see what happens,’” Warren remembers telling them. “I started throwing it a little bit. I didn’t feel like I needed to climb because it wasn’t as much a separation from the sweeper and the curveball.”
Warren went on to explain that, as a minor leaguer, he felt he needed to have the shape of a big, 12-6 curveball so that it looked entirely different than his sweeper. This spring, however, the Yankees told him he just needed a slow curve with some depth. The 12-6 shape that Warren once craved — and caused him to change arms slots — wasn’t necessary.
He hasn’t felt the need to change angles since.
Whether Warren’s curve sticks this time remains to be seen, but the Yankees love his stuff either way. His mind for the game is where they’d like to see continued progress, a reasonable expectation for a young pitcher.
“Hopefully, he’s just a little more advanced, a little more polished,” Boone said. “He’s super competitive. As a starting pitcher, I think it’s important that he harnesses some of that intensity. It’s hard to roll out there as a starter for 80, 90, 100 pitches with your hair on fire. Not that he’s so much like that, but [I want to see him] reigning that in a little bit and really controlling that next pitch.
“Just really being in command of his stuff and knowing what he wants to do. Knowing where he can go to stay away from damage in certain situations. But he has the arsenal, he has the stuff. I think he has the makeup and that intensity and toughness that you need.”
Boone went on to say that Warren will likely play “an important role” for the Yankees this season. The manager still sees Warren as a starter, though that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll return to the majors via the rotation.
Warren, of course, is happy to do “whatever the team needs.”
“I’m just going out there and taking the mound every time they give me a chance,” he said.
