The adjustments Will Warren makes to take his Yankees game to the next level

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Clarke Schmidt has been where Will Warren is now.

Just two years ago, Schmidt was the right-hander coming off a season in which he made more than 30 starts and established himself in the major leagues, even if he had some problems along the way. Confidence was never an issue, but the next spring he arrived at camp with a different feeling, a season’s worth of experience on his shoulders and information in his head that he could use to his advantage.

“You don’t really feel like you belong in this league until you get a few years into it, until you feel like you’ve done something, whether it’s posting [pitching every five days] or be successful,” Schmidt said. “So I think that definitely plays a role.”

They’re not the same pitcher, but the Yankees would be signing up for whatever came next for Schmidt — he left in the first two months of 2024 before a strained lat derailed him — to come next for Warren, barring the injury.

For that to happen, Warren will have to address a few key areas that hurt him the most last season on his way to a 4.44 ERA over 33 starts. Like Schmidt, Warren struggled with left-handed hitters.

Overall, he didn’t pitch that well against some of the better teams he faced.

And he was hurt by a couple of big innings that blew up a handful of starts.

“I honestly think it’s at a comfort level,” Warren said Tuesday after pitching 2 ²/₃ innings of one-run ball while striking out four in an 8-7 win over the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark. “I know my stuff is working, based on 33 starts and 170 innings. It’s not trying to do too much.

“Be Will Warren. Will Warren is good enough to get people out.”

The first task will be to get through the spring healthy to start the season in the rotation at a time when the Yankees will already be missing Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Schmidt from the injured list.

Warren is coming off the heaviest workload of his career last season, having thrown 167 innings including the playoffs — well past the 132 ¹/₃ innings he totaled in 2024, but he says he’s feeling strong after taking just an extra week off from pitching this offseason.

As for his plan to better attack hitters, the 26-year-old has switched from a lineup on the first base side of the rubber to the third base side, which he believes can help against both righties (who hit .232 with a .680 OPS against him last season) and lefties (who hit .266 with a .786 OPS last season).

“I think it helped the angle of attack [be] a little sharper,” said Warren, who threw from third base in college. “Righties, it feels like I’m coming at them, lefties can feel like the ball is far away, especially backdoor sweeper, backdoor curveball. And then just make it super sharp as you go in. I think comfort is the most important thing we are working on.”

Warren also said he wanted to throw the kitchen sink at left-handed hitters, and put extra emphasis on staying ahead of them so he could keep them guessing on multiple pitches.

The Blue Jays had just three lefties in their lineup on Tuesday, and after giving up hits to each of them the first time in the lineup, Warren came back to take out lefty Daulton Varsho and Jesus Sanchez (caught looking at a hip lead) back to back to cap his outing.

“I see those similarities with Will, where he’s trying to get better with lefties and limit some walks,” said Schmidt, who posted a 4.64 ERA in 32 starts in 2023 before jumping to a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts in 2025. “Then you start cleaning up the details and smoothing all that stuff out, and then your game takes off.”

Warren allowed three earned runs or fewer in 24 of his 33 starts, but also had some clunkers — most notably disastrous first innings against the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Red Sox — that he will have to better manage.

“Just don’t let things snowball, if you get a little emotional and want to go harder and go faster — no. You’ve got to perform better,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So learning how to do it, how to be, what’s that fine line between an edge and a fire for you, but especially as a starting pitcher, and also being very stable emotionally to handle all the things that come your way over the course of the game. He’s done a good job of that, but that’s the trick for a lot of these guys.”