The injuries are piling up in the Yankees’ bullpen, as Scott Effross went down with a hamstring injury against the Twins and JT Brubaker went down with a tweaked muscle in their Spring Training opener. A pair of right-handed veterans who had a real shot of making the roster, their injuries could open the door for other pitchers to grab spots on the team. Jake Cousins’ early Spring forearm strain which thankfully didn’t end up being a UCL strain also places more stress on a bullpen that’s running thin on depth.
If they need arms to step up and provide value in the immediate future, the Yankees have a pair of weapons who could snag a spot in their bullpen. Will Warren and Brent Headrick have been extremely impressive early on thanks to some huge improvements in their repertoires, and they might be the perfect picks to fill out the backend of the Yankees’ bullpen.
Brent Headrick’s Newfound Velocity Leaves Yankees Impressed
Yesterday, Brent Headrick threw the fastest-recorded pitch of his MLB career; a 96.4 MPH fastball that he blew right by Nolan Arenado for a swinging strikeout. The left-hander picked up four strikeouts in two scoreless innings of work, building off of his first outing of Spring Training where he had his best average fastball velocity (93.9 MPH) ever tracked in a game.
His stuff looks better than it ever has, with Headrick adding another inch in vertical break, resulting in a more overpowering fastball that can be dangerous at the top of the zone. Brent Headrick was known for having a pretty mediocre fastball, but now his heater is a plus pitch as it’s sitting around the league average in terms of velocity while having elite vertical movement and extension.
Through his two outings in Spring Training, Brent Headrick has struck out seven of the 13 hitters he’s faced to this point, a result of being able to attack hitters instead of nibble.
Brent Headrick’s fastball got hit hard in Triple-A and graded out as a below-average pitch as a result of being slow while lacking truly unique qualities. His extension stands out as a positive trait, but his high release point with 17.5 inches of ride is hardly anything to write home about. The fastball he’s flashed in camp also doesn’t have some crazy outlier traits, but it has far more above-average ones than before, making his improved heater a problem.
As mentioned earlier, Headrick’s high release point makes his four-seam fastball a little more predictable, as higher release points average higher IVB numbers than their lower-release counterparts. The league-average IVB for a pitcher with Brent Headrick’s release height (6.2 feet) or higher is 17.2, so his 17.5″ IVB wasn’t nearly as impressive as it would initially present itself to be.
Brent Headrick is averaging around 19″ of IVB on his fastball so far in Spring Training, which is now above average for his release height, resulting in some more swings and misses at the top of the zone. His fastball being firmer helps as well, as his ~94 MPH average fastball velocity makes a huge difference from the 91-92 MPH range Headrick sat at for most of his professional career.
An improved fastball can have effects that ripple throughout a pitcher’s arsenal, as their secondary pitches could become tougher to hit when hitters have to better prepare for a heater that can overwhelm them at the top of the zone. While Headrick’s slider has always been effective when located in the lower quadrants of the strike zone, improvements made to his changeup have flown under the radar and could end up being a game-changer for him (no pun intended).
READ MORE: Yankees’ electric bullpen arm receives positive injury news
A serious increase in vertical drop has given Brent Headrick a changeup capable of being a nightmare for right-handed hitters to deal with, as it now has ~16 inches of vertical separation while being about 10 MPH slower. The Yankees have become a hotbed for offspeed pitches, with changeups and splitters becoming even more common on their pitching staff this season.
Brent Headrick has a plus fastball, plus slider, and a plus changeup, this is a dangerous left-handed pitcher who the Twins cut for reasons I still don’t truly understand. Their depth on the pitching side is truly marvelous, but Headrick has MiLB options remaining, and he’s incredibly raw despite being 27 years old. He’s tossed just 269.1 innings at the Minor League level with 28.2 innings of MLB work, for context Luis Gil had 247 MiLB innings entering 2024 with 33.1 innings in the big leagues.
There’s a lot of work left for Brent Headrick to do if he wants to make the Yankees’ bullpen, but he’s pressing all of the right buttons and could have a big 2025 season.
Why the Yankees Should Consider Will Warren For a Bullpen Role
After a disastrous stint in the big leagues last season, Will Warren is determined to get back on track and show the Yankees that he’s a high-level starter. There have been some sweeping changes in his repertoire to make sure that hitters aren’t able to barrel him up, as Warren has finetuned his changeup and added a curveball. His changeup wasn’t as prominently used against the Cardinals, where he tossed three perfect innings with four strikeouts, but that was a product of St. Louis throwing out a right-handed heavy lineup.
Warren has developed the ability and comfort in his arsenal to aggressively platoon his pitches, using his sinker and sweeper 63% of the time since 66% of the pitches he threw yesterday came against right-handed batters. The usage rates against righties and lefties followed the same basic principles; attack with his sinker-sweeper combination and throw some four-seamers upstairs to get whiffs, and then dial back the usage of those two pitches against lefties.
His curveball worked extremely well in the role of stealing strikes, as two of the three curveballs he flipped in were called strikes with the other missing the zone for a ball. Being able to gain count leverage by just throwing a curveball is extremely valuable, and it sets up the rest of his arsenal well due to having nearly 60 inches of drop. Will Warren’s stuff has never been the question for me, but rather the usage of his arsenal, and we’re seeing a lot of positives early.
One of the pitches that betrayed Will Warren last season was his sinker, a pitch he would not (and should not) abandon despite the poor results it had in Triple-A and the Major Leagues. Instead of scrapping the pitch altogether, Warren has begun throwing it higher in the zone, resulting in more weak contact and some whiffs. It seems unconventional, but high sinkers have become extremely effective, especially from the right kinds of arm angles.
READ MORE: Yankees’ starting pitcher making excellent progress from ‘cranky’ back injury
The improvements to his sinker are important as last season hitters had a .570 wOBA and .453 xwOBA against his sinking fastball. By throwing it high to both righties and lefties, Will Warren can also set up his four-seamer as hitters are seeing two different pitches with identical velocity ranges that have ~14 inches of vertical separation, resulting in some nasty sequences where he can jam a hitter with a sinker then blow them away with his four-seamer.
When the Yankees called Will Warren up, his four-seamer quickly became his lifeline, but it’s only improved this offseason as he’s dropped his release height by over two inches, resulting in a flatter approach angle. Warren’s four-seamer has registered a 66.7% Whiff Rate through his first two outings, and the Yankees are aggressively pushing that pitch against righties and lefties as a swing-and-miss pitch.
Even his sweeper looks better than it did last season, averaging 20.2 inches of horizontal movement early on, as he’s twirled some pretty breaking balls to get some ugly swings. Will Warren looks dangerous on the mound right now, and the Yankees should seriously consider him for a bullpen role.
In short spurts like the ones we’ve seen in Spring Training, Warren has flashed some upper-echelon pitch quality, and building his confidence with the Yankees could be far more valuable than letting him go to Scranton.