00:00By the end of May, the Yankees could have a problem most teams would love to have.
00:04Too many starters. Garrett Cole is coming back. Carlos Rodon is already back. Max Freed,
00:10he's been everything the Yankees hoped for, and Cam Schlittler is one of the best young pitchers
00:14in the game. And now the big question becomes, who stays in the rotation and who moves to the
00:20bullpen? Will Warren or Ryan Weathers? Both have shown real growth. Both have given the Yankees
00:26important innings. But if the Yankees want to maximize this staff for October,
00:30there may be a very clear answer.
00:40The Yankees didn't expect this to become a debate. Earlier this season, they were just trying to
00:45survive injuries. Now, they may have too many viable starters, and that's where this gets interesting.
00:50Because this isn't just about who has been better. It's about role. It's about fit.
00:55And which pitcher gives the Yankees the best chance to win big games. To help us break this down,
01:00I'm joined by the founder of PitcherList, Nick Pollock. Nick, before we even get into who should
01:05move to the bullpen, I think it's important to acknowledge something here, right? Both Will
01:09Warren and Ryan Weathers, they've taken legitimate steps forward this season. So when you watch these
01:14two, what improvements stand out most to you right now? Well, what's really interesting, first of all,
01:20with Ryan Weathers coming from the Marlins, there's two things that really are just so
01:24impressive this year. First of all, he's healthy. Ryan Weathers has constantly battled injuries
01:29throughout his career. And the fact that he has the velocity now here in May that he had in March
01:35and April, he's saving some of it inside of starts. He hasn't been able to do that a lot when
01:39he was
01:39with the Miami Marlins. And the second thing is not the easiest prediction you could have made
01:47is that the Yankees said, hey, throw a sinker. It's the same thing that happened to Jesus
01:50Lizardo when he went to the Phillies. The Marlins, for whatever reason, are not encouraging their
01:54lefties to throw sinkers inside to left-handed batters. Ryan Weathers is doing that just like
01:59Lizardo is now in Philadelphia, and it's helping him a ton. So you have that with an improved change
02:03up also to right-handers. And Ryan Weathers is really figuring out that, oh, hey, I don't need
02:09to throw max effort every single time. I can throw 93, 94. I can ramp up a little bit more
02:13in starts.
02:14And he's becoming more of a pitcher instead of just a thrower with his four-seamers,
02:18his change up, his sinker, his sweeper as well. And Will Warren is an interesting one because
02:22Will Warren last year had to figure out, what am I going to do against lefties? And then suddenly
02:27he had a much better four-seamer he can throw upstairs to lefties. And then suddenly went from
02:31this sinker, sweeper, change up guy to four-seamer sinker all the time. That became his main attack
02:39to right-handers and then also against left-handers. And I was really hoping to see a little bit more
02:44from the sweeper and the change up this season. And we have seen some games where those have taken
02:49over more, especially in those higher strikeout games that we've seen from him as of late.
02:53But really, Will Warren is just doing more of the same that became his routine in the second half of
02:59last year. It's a really good four-seamer. It's a really good sinker backdoor to right-handers as
03:03well. And I think actually we could even see another gear as he continues to get more comfortable
03:07with the change up and the sweeper for Will Warren. And this is what makes the decision
03:12complicated. Ryan Weathers has looked more stable as a traditional starter. He's giving length,
03:17he's managing contact, and his pitch mix feels built to turn lineups over multiple times. But Will
03:23Warren, his stuff may actually play bigger in a completely different role. The argument for Will
03:29Warren to the bullpen isn't about failure. It's actually all about optimization. Warren's profile
03:34screams high leverage reliever. He's working with a four-seam fastball that averages around
03:392,600 revolutions per minute. That's a lead spin that already generated a plus 11 run value in 2025.
03:47His sinker features heavy arm side run and generated a 62% ground ball rate. And we've got to talk
03:54about
03:54his change up. That may be the money pitch. Hitters batted under 200 against it in 2025 while whiffing over
04:0130% of the time. The shape, the late movement, the arm speed. It's a pitch that could become
04:07devastating in shorter bursts. So when you look at Will Warren's profile, does it actually feel like
04:12a guy who could actually become more valuable in the bullpen? Oh, no, no, no, no, absolutely not.
04:20When you have your bullpen guys, it's traditionally, I have one elite pitch that I know that I could just
04:26keep throwing over and over again and things will be great. Think of Tommy Conley with his change up,
04:31or you have Josh Haters with his fastball and so on. And a guy like Will Warren throwing fastballs
04:38and sinkers that are not overpowering, that are not big stuff pitches. He isn't really dominating guys
04:44with the sweeper. It's more about command. That is more susceptible to the BABIP game a little bit,
04:50which is more about, okay, over the course of five, six innings, this will go well,
04:54but the explosiveness, the change of pace that you want from a reliever is not going to be found
05:00in Will Warren. So his skillset really speaks to being a starting pitcher and not a reliever.
05:06And I would even say the same thing about Ryan Weathers. It's not really that kind of arsenal
05:12that I want just for one inning. It's really one of those that has a full breadth of an arsenal
05:18that I want to throw him in there for the second time, maybe even the third time through the lineup
05:22as well. So both of these guys don't really profile out as a kind of reliever that the Yankees would
05:27want.
05:27Now, when you talk about Will Warren, you might think of another Yankees relief pitcher,
05:32Michael King. And the comparison is hard to ignore. The pitch mixes, they're similar. The cross-body
05:38delivery is also similar. Even the development path makes sense. Back in 2022, King became one of
05:44baseball's most dominant multi-inning relievers. His sinker generated elite movement. His changeup
05:50destroyed hitters and his ability to miss bats in big spots changed games. Then later,
05:55he stretched back into a starter. That's important to know here. Moving Warren to the bullpen
06:00wouldn't necessarily mean giving up on him as a starter long-term. It just may actually be the
06:07fastest way to maximize him right now. So Nick, with all that being said, and when you look at
06:13Weathers and you look at Warren, do you think the Yankees could view either guy like they did with
06:19Michael King, right? Where the bullpen isn't a demotion, but actually a way to develop a dominant
06:25arm while helping the team win now? Or you say this is not a possibility for either of these guys
06:30at all?
06:31So I understand it completely. And when you come to playoff time, you have to imagine one of these
06:37guys, if not both, are going to be in the pen and they're going to be incredible assets for the
06:41Yankees
06:42as options. If things aren't going right out of the gate, they have these arms that who could go
06:47three, four innings, save them in the same way. That's a Lance McCullers paired with Charlie
06:53Morton back in the day, right? You have the Los Angeles Dodgers who just won a world series
06:57and their second one that what they've done is they said, we have all these guys who constantly
07:01get injured. We have Blake Snell and we have a glass now, and we want to make sure that Yamamoto
07:06is healthy to pitch and same with Otani and so on. So they use a six man. And if you
07:10look at the
07:11Yankees, okay, let's make sure that Rodon and Cole have a nice and easy season leading up to the
07:17postseason. Let's make sure that Ryan Weathers, who has not survived throughout an entire season,
07:23be healthy. You have Cam Schlittler, who has not pitched the full season with the Yankees yet.
07:29Yeah, let's have that extra day. A six man makes all of the sense for the Yankees. And look,
07:34it is a blessing that you have a rotation like the Yankees do right now where they don't
07:41need another person to fill in the gap. But the Yankees would be incredibly lucky if all six of
07:46those pitchers, including Cole, are healthy at the same time. It is rare to see that. So when we get
07:53to that moment, we might just see a six man for maybe a week or two, and then something will
07:58break.
07:58And whatever that is, the Yankees will adapt. But I think it would be a mistake for the Yankees to
08:03go
08:03innately into this. Oh, cool. We're going to move Ryan Weathers to the pen because when there is an
08:08opening, now you have to stretch out about Weathers again. You have to get back into the
08:13other routine instead of just having a six man where they can just fall back into a fine man if
08:18needed. Now let's look at the other side of the conversation. Ryan Weathers may not have the
08:23flashiest stuff of the two, but his profile may simply fit starting better. He's more comfortable
08:29pitching deeper into games. The pacing works, the mix works. And frankly, the Yankees may need
08:35another traditional innings eater behind Cole, Fried, Rodon, and Schlittler. Because if Warren's
08:41elite traits play bigger in relief, Weathers may actually have more value staying exactly where he
08:48is. And this is why the conversation matters. The Yankees don't just need starters. They need
08:53bullpen weapons, particularly guys with swing and miss stuff. Pitchers who can get ground balls and
08:58deliver multi-inning flexibility. They need someone who can bridge October games. And if Will
09:04Warren or Ryan Weathers can become a version of what Michael King was for this team, that may
09:10actually be more valuable than back end rotation innings. All right, Nick. So let's say Garrett
09:16Cole returns tomorrow and the Yankees have to make this decision. They are not going to go to a six
09:22man
09:22rotation. Who stays in the rotation? And who do you believe out of these two options, whether it's
09:29Warren or Weathers is the better fit for the bullpen? Who are you going with? Well, it's fun answering a
09:34hypothetical. I don't think it's going to happen. I'm just kidding. I could absolutely happen. They
09:38could say Matt Blake saying, look, it changes things. If you go six man rotation, that means
09:42you have one for your guy in the pen and that can put some extra strain there. It would be
09:47Ryan
09:47Weathers in my book as Will Warren does not have the same high octane velocity that Ryan
09:52Weathers has. Also, it's more of an injury risk for Ryan Weathers than it is Will Warren at this
09:57moment. So you do want to protect that a little bit more. I would hope that if the Yankees were
10:02going
10:02to do that, they would use him in long relief and to keep him three innings or so whenever they
10:07could
10:07and try to keep it stretched out as opposed to the one inning or two inning blips that could really
10:11make it difficult when the time comes that the Yankees would need Ryan Weathers back into the
10:17rotation. The important thing to remember here is that this is a good problem for the Yankees to have
10:22both Will Warren and Ryan Weathers. They've taken steps forward, but baseball is about fit as much as it
10:28is about talent. And right now, Will Warren's stuff, deception, and pitch characteristics may
10:35give the Yankees something they desperately need, a dominant multi-inning bullpen weapon for October.
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