Yankees prospect Will Warren making most of major-league camp invite
Yankees pitchers stretch during spring training at the team's facility in Tampa, Fla., on Friday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. — Get this out of the way first:
Touted Yankees pitching prospect Will Warren isn’t likely to break camp with the big-league club. That possibility is a long shot at best.
But thanks to
a terrific 2023 season in the minors, the 24-year-old righthander put himself on the cusp of making it to the Bronx sooner rather than later.
It also earned him an invite to his first major-league spring training, and he still seems in awe.
“I grew up watching all of these guys,” said Warren, whose locker in the Steinbrenner Field clubhouse is no more than a few arm’s lengths away from Gerrit Cole’s and Carlos Rodon’s. “It’s kind of surreal. Just trying to learn and soak up as much information as I can.”
Warren, an eighth-round pick from the 2021 draft whom the Yankees currently see solely as a starter, went 10-4 with a 3.35 ERA between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year.
He threw live batting practice session on one of the back fields here on Friday, an event watched by manager Aaron Boone, several of his coaches and a small handful of front-office members.
“His sinker-slider, it’s real,” Boone said of what stands out most about Warren’s repertoire, echoing what some rival team scouts assigned to the Yankees’ system have said. “It’s a really good combination for him and obviously sets him up to have that built-in advantage against righties. Now [it’s about] expanding that arsenal and getting that better with the four-seam, the changeup and the cutter to make him . . . viable against lefties but continue to develop in that regard, and I think he’s done a nice job with that, developing those other pitches.”
Judge makes pitch
On the podcast hosted by Sean Casey, the Yankees’ hitting coach the second half of last season, Aaron Judge recently expressed a desire to hit third in the batting order (behind new import Juan Soto).
Which is nothing new.
“That’s been going on about six years now,” Boone said with a smile. “He might get his wish. Finally. In the end, whatever I decide, he’s usually good with.”
Judge has batted second in 529 games in his career compared with 169 in the third spot. Last season, he batted in the two-hole 102 times and in the three-hole twice.
Pitcher claimed
On Friday, the Yankees claimed righthander McKinley Moore off waivers from the Phillies and placed righthander Lou Trivino, who won’t be back until June at the earliest as he recovers from the Tommy John surgery he had in May, on the 60-day IL.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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