When Michael King was traded, the Yankees knew the pitcher they were giving up, and despite everything that’s happened since, the deal was one they simply had to make.
A beloved reliever who showed flashes of being a dominant starter towards the end of his tenure in the Bronx, King has been dearly missed due to his wide array of nasty pitches. Will Warren had been generating some comparisons to the Padres’ star pitcher, but an ugly 2024 season caused him to draw the ire of most fans. The Yankees have opted for the more patient approach, one that has allowed them to churn out pitchers such as King himself under Matt Blake and Sam Briend.
With his changeup at the forefront of his two-inning performance on Friday, Will Warren racked up swings and misses, but what went under the radar was a new tactic that could result in a very successful 2025 season.
Will Warren Undergoing a Familiar Transformation With the Yankees
The changeup that Will Warren flashed on Friday is a weapon that was designed specifically to get left-handed batters out, which is further supported by how he used it. The right-hander deployed his changeup 12 times against lefties but just once against righties in that outing, but why would he completely avoid that pitch in those scenarios? Well, Warren didn’t believe his changeup would fare as well against righties as his sinker or sweeper would based on league trends.
By using handedness to determine which pitches he’ll lean on more, Will Warren is platooning his pitches, something Michael King did with the Yankees to give him an extra edge. Since vertical deception is more effective against opposite-handed hitters, Warren used his four-seamer and changeup 76% of the time against lefties while only using them 27% of the time against righties.
Will Warren used his sinker and sweeper 72% of the time against righties as a result of how well horizontal deception works against same-handed opponents. While you could see active attempts to use his sinker/sweeper more against righties and his four-seam/changeup against lefties, those splits were far less dramatic than what we saw in his first outing of the Spring:
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This is where that improved changeup factors into all of this, as the big shift in usage rates seems to stem from increased confidence in throwing that pitch aggressively. If Will Warren is able to land changeups like that throughout an outing, he’ll get plenty of left-handed batters out and give himself the four-pitch mix that Michael King used himself when he was with the Yankees.
Baseball Savant gives Will Warren a 0.99 similarity score to Michael King, dubbing them as near carbon copies of each other, and that’s pretty encouraging given how Stuff+ views these two pitchers. What changed Michael King forever was the development of the pitches complimenting his sinker, as that pitch made insignificant improvements in shape or velocity from 2021-2024.
His arsenal had four of five pitches grade out as average or above average, but his changeup fell way short of the average changeup in Eno Sarris’ Stuff+ model. His revised version of the pitch could perform a lot better in pitch quality metrics, resulting in an arsenal that has all of its 4-5 pitches graded out as average or better. It also helps that his four-seamer generated more ride, which will only make that changeup even harder to hit.
The key improvement with his changeup has to do with an increase in vertical drop, as Will Warren’s changeup averaged -1″ IVB in his Spring Training outing. If that pitch generates that much drop, lefties are going to have a problem trying to make contact with it or even do damage, and I believe it played a huge part in the overall lack of damage contact against the young righty.
When you think of what made Michael King great, it was the improvements made to his changeup and four-seamer that took him from a good reliever to a dominant starting pitcher.
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Baseball Savant’s Similarity Score metric takes into account a pitcher’s velocity and movement profiles, with higher numbers meaning there’s a closer resemblance to the player. Will Warren has a 1.0 match with himself (duh), but right behind him at 0.99 is Michael King, which backs up the observations one could make with their eyes. To be so similar to a pitcher that you are just one point off of being a carbon copy of Michael King is exciting for the Yankees’ young righty.
There are some differences, King has a slightly wider release point while Warren releases the ball closer to the plate with a lower arm angle. Those differences come with their own unique advantages that would lead to different outcomes, but the foundation for their arsenals boils down to spinning the ball well from weird angles. Michael King’s experience shines in his command and pitchability; he is a genius when it comes to knowing how to use his brilliant repertoire.
Will Warren has not gotten to that point and maybe he never will, but the bar for success shouldn’t be so high that you’d have to become a 4 WAR pitcher to reach it. A world in which he’s a great reliever or a 3-4 starter on the Yankees is one that exceeds the expected outcome of someone drafted in the eighth round. Michael King serves as a model of how someone with their profile can succeed, and the Yankees were the ones who oversaw most of that development.
There’s the same wiffleball-esque movement in Will Warren’s game with a good feel for everything he throws, and now that he’s picked up on something Michael King excelled by doing, he could take his game to the next level.