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CLEARWATER, Fla. — Will Warren faced almost the same exact Phillies lineup Tuesday that he did in his MLB debut seven months ago.
But he believes it was a different pitcher taking the mound at BayCare Ballpark than the one at Citizens Bank Park last July.
While pitching in the Grapefruit League is a far cry from the setting in which Warren made his first big league start — when he got knocked around by the Phillies, the first of six outings last season in which he recorded a 10.32 ERA — the 25-year-old right-hander is hoping he is better off for that experience and has backed that up so far this spring.
“A lot of downs last year, unfortunately, but learned from them and moved on,” Warren said after giving up just a solo home run across three innings in a 12-3 win over the Phillies. “Taking that into this year, a lot of failure, you learn to overcome that and learn from your mistakes.”
Warren issued a leadoff walk to Trea Turner in an eight-pitch at-bat (after getting ahead 1-2) and then in the second inning experimented with throwing a first-pitch curveball — a pitch he is working on adding back into his arsenal this spring — to Max Kepler, who drilled it for a home run.
But he retired every other batter he faced, including strikeouts of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber whiffing at fastballs and J.T. Realmuto and Turner looking at a changeup and a sweeper, respectively.
“Gosh, he was excellent,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The changeup is real now. You see the life on the fastball. Put some good fastballs by good hitters, mixing the sinker and four-seam. Executed a lot. Another good day for him.”
In three outings this spring, Warren has allowed just one run on two hits and two walks across eight innings while striking out 11.
Around this time last year, Warren looked like he might just become the fifth starter.
That job, of course, was eventually won by Luis Gil before Warren grinded through a bumpy season between Triple-A (5.91 ERA in 23 starts) and his first taste of the majors.
But a year later, with Gil now set to be out until at least June because of a high-grade lat strain, Warren represents the next line of insurance should the rotation suffer another injury (with Marcus Stroman set to step in for Gil).
And when that occurs — because it inevitably will at some point this season — the Yankees and Warren are banking on him being better equipped to handle big league lineups because of what he went through last year.
“Probably just a little more control of himself and aware of what makes him good,” said Austin Wells, who was also catching Warren in his MLB debut last July 30. “With that, it makes him that much better of a pitcher.”
Warren was called up to make his debut in Philadelphia last July when Gerrit Cole was scratched with body fatigue.
The Mississippi native joked Tuesday that he does not remember much about that game, in which he got tagged for four runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings, but did say he wishes now he had taken in the moment a bit more.
Across six outings (five starts), opponents hit .340 with a 1.012 OPS against Warren.
But his confidence was not shaken by the experience. If anything, he arrived at camp more confident this spring as he tries to rewrite his script whenever he gets his next chance in the big leagues.
“That’s part of his experience,” Boone said. “That’s part of his continuing to get to that next level and why I make the Clarke Schmidt comparison a lot. That was Clarke a few years ago. You saw the good even with outings where he’d get hit a little bit. He’d just make mistakes and kind of learn. Hopefully [Warren] has benefitted from a lot of that.”
