On July 30, 2024, Gerrit Cole was scratched from his start in Philadelphia due to “general body fatigue.” Without many options to overcome this, the Yankees turned to one of their top pitching prospects
in the minors, promoting Will Warren to make his major league debut. Warren would make six total appearances in 2024 as a fill-in starter and would get absolutely shelled, leading to skepticism in the fanbase about whether he could be a major league-caliber pitcher.
Fast forward to 2025, and a trio of injuries to start the season gave Warren an impromptu rotation spot. While the Yankees would get healthier over the course of the season and eventually add standout rookie Cam Schlittler midseason, Warren held his spot all season long, giving the Yankees stability in their rotation.
Grade: C+
2025 Statistics: 33 GS, 162,1 IP, 4.44 ERA (92 ERA+), 4.07 FIP, 9.48 K/9, 3.6 BB/9, 2.1 fWAR
2026 Contract Status: Pre-Arbitration, under control through 2030
With Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt starting the season on the shelf, Warren began the season in the rotation with Carlos Carrasco and Marcus Stroman. Despite the extremely low expectations for the two veterans, it seemed like Warren would be the first to be demoted due to the initial plans to start him in Triple-A.
The season ultimately didn’t start well for Warren. Through seven starts, he had an ERA north of 5.5 and had not pitched into the sixth inning. A lack of length, exacerbated by poor command and poor pitch selection, hurt him mightily. He remained in the rotation when Schmidt returned due to an injury to Stroman, but he had done little to entrench himself.
That changed starting on May 9th, when he dominated the Athletics for 7.1 innings, bringing a shutout into the eighth for the best start of his young career. It started a four-start stretch where he allowed five runs in 22 innings with 33 strikeouts, becoming one of the best rookie starters in MLB for much of May.
But this would begin a rather befuddling trend for Warren. He’d string together multiple starts in a row that gave the team a real chance to win, but would have a catastrophic blowup once every few weeks. After a strong May lowered Warren’s ERA to 4.09, he allowed seven runs and recorded only four outs on a disastrous day at Chavez Ravine.
He rebounded to post a 2.86 ERA in June across five starts, including a career-high 11-strikeout start on June 17th against the Angels and two scoreless outings against the Royals and A’s. Yet, it would be blown up again when his first start of July saw him give up seven runs in the first inning at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
He would post two good outings against the Cubs and Mariners next, before blowing up against the Braves. He allowed just six earned runs in 28 innings in his ensuing five starts, but would be roughed up by Boston in late August. He’d continue on this trend for the remainder of the season, never finding the consistency the team hoped for. His lone playoff appearance was mopping up Max Fried’s mess in Game 2 of the ALDS, and… it didn’t go well.
There’s a lot that can be said about Warren’s season, both good and bad. On one hand, he took the ball every fifth day for the Yankees and consistently went at least four or five innings, especially as the season wore on. He was a suitable back-of-the-rotation option all season and led all rookies in strikeouts, starts, and innings pitched. It’s rare nowadays for a rookie to be a qualified starter, but that’s what Warren did.
On the other hand, he was the definition of a mixed bag. He had a 3.50 ERA in 16 starts at home with a 16.9 K-BB%, but in 17 starts on the road, Warren’s ERA was 5.52 with a 12.7 K-BB%. Not only did he struggle away from Yankee Stadium, but his blowups always happened against playoff teams. His ERA against teams above .500 was 5.03, compared to 3.87 against sub-.500 clubs.
He had ugly peripherals, and he gave up way too much hard contact. At times, his stuff looked near-unhittable, with four of his pitches generating wOBA’s under .310, and three of them having a whiff rate north of 30 percent. On the flip side, the sweeper that looked unhittable at times got obliterated (.336 BA, .405 wOBA), and neither of his fastballs had the velocity to overpower hitters.
His future outlook is murky. He has plenty of control and can continue to progress, but the Yankees are in a contention window and the emergence of Schlittler has crowded the rotation. He’ll definitely have a clear role to start 2026 with Cole, Schmidt, and possibly Carlos Rodón on the shelf by Opening Day, but what happens when they’re healthy? What happens if the Yankees acquire another starter?
Ultimately, he deserves the C+. He was a slightly below-average starter who was, at the very least, reliable for a team that gave too many starts to the likes of Carrasco and Stroman out of necessity. When you grade a player, you have to account for expectations, and I think we all would’ve taken this season from Warren if you were told he had to be a rotation mainstay all season.
