Take a look at the photo above. The guy about to deliver the pitch is Will Warren, the New York Yankees star rookie pitcher. Warren stands a strapping 6 feet, 2 inches tall, weighs a streamlined 200 pounds and can throw 97 mph fastballs that move this way and that with pinpoint accuracy.
Will Warren, left, couldn’t get on the mound as a skinny, 5-foot, 4-inch Jackson Prep 10th grader.Now then, look at the photo to the right from 10 years ago. The kid wearing number 16 is the same Will Warren, then 16 years young and a 10th grader at Jackson Prep. Warren stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall, threw his fastball 78 mph and pitched all of three innings in Prep’s state championship season. Says Warren, “I was a skinny, little guy, and we had a bunch of really talented older guys who could really throw it hard. I wasn’t big enough or good enough. I hardly ever got to play.”
Perhaps this column should be required reading for all the late bloomers in baseball — or any sport, for that matter — who ride the bench while wondering if they are ever going to grow or mature enough to even get a chance. This is a story of waiting your turn and never giving up. This is the story of a kid who at one point couldn’t get on the mound at Jackson Prep’s cozy field on Lakeland Drive and now often takes the mound in pinstripes at mammoth Yankee Stadium in the Bronx before a packed house and national TV audience.
This is the story of a kid who grew nearly nine inches taller his junior year of high school and who still wasn’t considered good enough to be recruited by the big baseball schools in his home state. So he took the only scholarship offer he had at Southeastern Louisiana, worked his butt off and continued to grow, get stronger and learn how to pitch. This is also the story of a guy who, if he continues on his current career path, will someday make millions upon millions of dollars playing the game he was once considered too small and weak to play.
“I grew up a Mississippi State fan, and my dream was to play baseball there,” Warren said on Monday by phone from Cincinnati, where the Yankees are currently playing. “By the time I was really pitching well as a senior at Prep, they already had all their pitchers committed.”
So did Ole Miss. So did Southern Miss. So did all the other SEC and Deep South baseball powers. Southeastern Louisiana, a really good, under-appreciated baseball program, kept showing up at all Prep games, kept telling Warren he was their guy. Finally, Warren committed to Southeastern in Hammond, just two hours away from home. Says Warren, “It was where I was supposed to be.”
He wasn’t an overnight success at SLU either. He pitched only 23 innings as a freshman and had a 1-1 record with three saves (one a three-inning save in a victory over LSU at Baton Rouge, which served a predictor of things to come).
“At Southeastern I got in the weight room really hard for the first time that freshman year and got a lot stronger,” Warren said.
By the time he was a senior, his fastball velocity had zoomed to a consistent 95 mph, sometimes touching 97. He had polished his off-speed and breaking pitches. Most importantly, he threw strikes, as his 95 strikeouts compared to 25 walks attest.
The Yankees, who had shown interest and offered him a free agent contract the year before, drafted him in the eighth round of the 2021 draft. He quickly became one of the franchise’s top prospects. His rise up the Yanks’ minor league ladder was relatively quick: Class A and AA in 2022, AA and AAA in 2023, AAA and a taste of the Major Leagues in 2024.
That first taste of the Big Leagues was more bitter than sweet. He allowed 33 hits and 26 earned runs in just 22.2 innings.
“I just wasn’t comfortable and was trying to do too much, be too perfect at first,” Warren said.
But then again, nothing has ever come easy for Warren. That said, injuries to two projected starters this past spring opened spots in the Yankees’ starting rotation. Warren pitched well enough in the spring to earn one of them. And, after a relatively slow start to the regular season, he keeps getting better and better. The Yankees have won seven of his last nine starts, and he has pitched at least five innings in all but one. His record stands at 4-4 and opponents are batting only .239 against him. If he continues to progress at his current pace, he will be a candidate for American League Rookie of the Year.
“Experience helps, and I keep learning and improving,” Warren said. “I know I have what it takes. I’m in a good spot with a really good team.”
The Yankees lead the American League East by two games over the surging Tampa Bay Rays, who have been boosted this season Warren’s former Jackson Prep teammate Jake Mangum. The two faced one another May 5 in a game at Tampa Bay. Warren chuckled as he told the story.
“I got a two strike count on him and threw him a really good slider down and away,” Warren said. “So of course Jake went down and got it, hit a high bouncer that he beat out for a hit — just Jake doing what Jake does. I glanced over at him and gave him a look and he tipped his cap and smiled. It was a moment.”
Mangum, the all-time SEC hits leader at State, was a senior star at Prep when Warren was a skinny, little 10th grader riding the bench, worrying if he would ever grow. Warren was so concerned about his size his parents took him to a pediatrician, who measured (via X-rays) Will’s growth plates. “You’re gonna grow,” the doctor told him. “Your growth plates are wide open. You’re gonna be a late bloomer, son, but you are going to grow.”
And grow he did, more rapidly than he could ever have imagined.
“I always thought Will would be a really good pitcher if he grew, and he did,” Mangum said. “He always had that pitch-ability. He could hit his spots and knew when to throw what pitches. He knew how to pitch. Plus, he just worked so hard at it. I am so happy for Will and what he has accomplished. When he’s not playing us, I pull for him.”
Warren always has believed in himself.
“I’ve always told people I wanted to play in the Big Leagues,” he said. “I definitely believed that I had the ability to take the next step at every level I’ve played. I think you have to have that confidence, that edge. I’ve always tried to be the best I can be at every level. At the same time, every day I am so grateful and feel so blessed to do what I do. It does feel like a dream sometimes. I’m so thankful that God has blessed me with this opportunity.”
Will Warren, formerly a 10th grade bench warmer at Jackson Prep, takes the mound at Yankee Stadium. Read More Details
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