NEW YORK — Will Warren was supposed to pitch Tuesday night. Rain took that away, and with it the ordinary rhythm every starting pitcher builds his week around.
By Wednesday morning the Yankees had a new assignment for him. By Wednesday night he was warming in the bullpen in the ninth inning of a two-run game.
He threw 16 pitches, faced four batters and did not finish the inning.
Then he went home to get ready for his real job, which arrives Friday in Philadelphia.
The Yankees asked Warren to work out of the bullpen in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over the Pirates while keeping him lined up to start the series opener against the Phillies two nights later, an unusual compression of roles for a pitcher who has spent the season in the rotation.
A rainout that rearranged everyone
Warren had been scheduled to face Bubba Chandler on Tuesday. When the forecast wiped out that game, the Yankees folded it into a split doubleheader Wednesday and reshuffled the staff around it.
The Yankees’ solution was to activate Max Fried early rather than burn two starters in one day. Fried, who had been slated for a second minor league rehab outing, instead started the nightcap and threw five scoreless innings. Gerrit Cole took the opener.
That preserved Warren for Friday, but it also left the Yankees thin in the bullpen after their second doubleheader in four days. Warren found out Wednesday morning that he would be available in relief, even though he was still penciled in to start two days later.
The Yankees are 57-45 and chasing Tampa Bay in the AL East, with an off day Thursday the only breather in the sequence.
The arrangement runs against how clubs normally treat starters. A pitcher two days from a start is usually untouchable, protected from any workload that might disturb his routine or his recovery. Using one in a save situation is the kind of move the Yankees make when the alternative is worse.
Four batters, one unfinished inning
Boone called on Warren to protect a 2-0 Yankees lead in the ninth. It did not go smoothly. Nick Gonzales opened with a single, and after Warren retired the next two hitters, he walked Esmerlyn Valdez to put the tying run on base.
Boone went to Tim Hill to face the left-handed Ryan O’Hearn, who grounded to Jazz Chisholm Jr. The call stood on review, ending the game and completing the Yankees’ ninth shutout of the season.
The outing was Warren’s first relief appearance since Game 2 of the 2025 AL Division Series against Toronto, when he allowed six runs. That history made the assignment more loaded than the pitch count suggested.
Angel Chivilli and Paul Blackburn handled the innings before him, with Blackburn covering two and striking out three. New York’s bullpen leads the majors with a 2.27 ERA over the past 42 games.
That unit is the reason the arrangement was survivable at all. Had the relief corps not been carrying the Yankees through a punishing stretch, the club would have needed more than 16 pitches from a man scheduled to start 48 hours later.
Warren watched the day from an unusual seat
Warren spent the afternoon watching Cole strike out 11, then watched Fried return from a two-month absence and shut out the Pirates for five innings. It was the first day the two Yankees aces were active together, and Warren was among the most enthusiastic voices about it afterward.
“It’s awesome to have those two,” Warren said. “We’ve been looking forward to that, and now they’re both healthy and ready to rip. I think you saw a masterclass today of what we’re gonna expect for the rest of the season.”
He returned to the phrase again when asked to sum up the doubleheader, framing the day around the pitching rather than the split result.
“I think you saw a master class today,” Warren said.
A start that still counts on Friday
Warren carries a 7-4 record and a 4.03 ERA into the assignment, numbers that have slipped as the season has gone on. He is 1-4 with a 5.56 ERA over his last seven starts, a stretch that has made his rotation spot a live question with the trade deadline approaching.
The matchup does him no favors. He faces Jesus Luzardo, who is 9-4 with a 3.43 ERA, in the opener of a three-game set at Citizens Bank Park. Cam Schlittler follows Saturday, with Ryan Weathers scheduled for Sunday against Cristopher Sanchez.
Philadelphia also holds a footnote in Warren’s career. The Yankees pitcher made his major league debut there in July 2024, allowing four runs over 5 1/3 innings against a Phillies lineup that included Bryce Harper, whom he struck out for the first out of his big league life.
Two years later the circumstances are inverted. He arrives not as a prospect getting a look but as a starter trying to hold a job, on a staff that has just added two aces and expects a third arm back from injury soon. Every outing now carries a different weight.
Whether 16 pitches on Wednesday costs him anything Friday is the question the Yankees are betting against. Nothing about the arrangement was conventional, and the answer arrives in Philadelphia.
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