The last time Will Warren stepped onto a major league mound, his ERA ballooned to 10.32 in his sixth outing last season.
On Tuesday, a more assertive, aggressive and mature — and therefore, the Yankees hope, effective — Warren will take the mound for his season debut against the Diamondbacks.
Injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt opened the door for Warren to start this season in the rotation, but the 25-year-old right-hander also had to show this spring he is better off for going through some struggles last year. He and the Yankees believe that to be the case.
“I don’t think there was any doubt in my mind [this spring] when throwing certain pitches,” Warren said at the end of camp. “Last year, sometimes the struggle came when I was like, ‘All right, this guy could handle this, so maybe I need to go away from that.’ I feel like this spring, it was like, ‘Four-seam fastball? Here it is, let’s see what you can do with it.’ I think that’s been the difference-maker.”
Warren also refined his changeup and reintroduced a curveball to his arsenal, both to give him more weapons against left-handed hitters.
He also wants to get ahead earlier in counts instead of falling behind, another thing that hurt him last season.
“I’m excited to see what Will Warren can do this year,” Aaron Judge said. “He’s a guy that I feel like every time I see him, every start he continues to get a little better, show something a little new. He’s continuing to gain that confidence. I think that’s what it’s really about here, playing at the major league level, is just having the confidence to go out there and trust your stuff and do your thing.”
The Yankees re-signed Dominic Smith to a minor league deal, the club announced on Monday, giving them more left-handed hitting depth at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Smith had put together a strong camp as a non-roster invitee, but when the ex-Met triggered his opt-out on March 21, the Yankees did not add him to the major league roster because they were already too left-handed heavy.
While the Triple-A season is already underway, the Yankees announced the rest of their minor league rosters on Monday.
Among the notable assignments: OF Spencer Jones, C Rafael Flores and RHP Cam Schlittler will begin the season at Double-A Somerset; SS George Lombard Jr., RHP Ben Hess, RHP Bryce Cunningham, RHP Carlos Lagrange, RHP Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and LHP Kyle Carr will start at High-A Hudson Valley.
SS Roderick Arias is the top prospect headed to Single-A Tampa, where he spent all of last season.
Judge on Monday was named the American League Player of the Week, an honor he collected three times in each of his MVP seasons.
In his first three games, Judge was 6-for-11 (.545) with four home runs, two doubles and 11 RBIs.
The usual suspects were in the top five of MLB’s top-selling jerseys rankings that were released on Monday: Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Judge.
But there was one other Yankee to break the top 20: Anthony Volpe at No. 19.
