By Billy Watkins
As a sophomore pitcher at Jackson Prep, right-hander Will Warren stood 5-foot-4 and was on nobody’s recruiting radar.
As a senior, “Will was our true ace,” said coach Brent Heavener. He pitched 83 innings, struck out 74, posted a 7-1 record with a 1.39 ERA and led Prep to the 2017 state championship.
He was named the MAIS Player of the Year.
Flash forward to Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Warren, a member of New York’s starting rotation, threw 5.1 innings and allowed just one hit against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who led the Major Leagues in runs scored a year ago. Warren’s only hiccups were four walks and a two-run homer by Corbin Carrol. Warren left the game with the Yankees ahead 4-3, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.
Still, Warren made a sizable impression on his coaches and teammates.
“I thought he pitched really well,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone at the postgame press conference. “He had a couple of walks, couple of leadoff walks, but didn’t come unraveled at all. I thought he did a really good job of changing speeds. His secondary pitches were excellent.
“It was a really good first-outing against a really good offense. Yes, there was some adversity along the way, but he handled it really well.”
Perhaps Warren’s most impressive moment occurred in the fourth inning with Arizona leading 2-1. Warren gave up a two-out walk and had to face Corbin Carrol, who had homered in the second.
Boone decided to leave Warren in. This was a showdown moment and Warren won the battle, striking out Carrol with a nasty changeup — the same pitch Carrol had hit for a homer.
Warren shoved a lot of confidence into his pocket on that one at-bat.
************
Yes, it’s a long way from 5-foot-4 to the mound at Yankee Stadium.
“Will’s story is absolutely amazing,” says Chuck Box, who coached Will through his junior season at Prep and now works as Director of Player Development at the University of Texas. “But it’s the kind of story that explains the reason why I do this.”
Box was going through exit interviews with each player on the 2015 team. When it came Warren’s time in the chair, Box told him: “Will, you have potential. But nobody takes you seriously. And only you can change that.”
“I think I kinda ticked him,” Box added, “because he turned into a different person when it came to baseball. He became throwing partners with Noah Hughes, who signed with Mississippi State. He worked and worked on every part of his game.
“He had this funky, three-quarter release spot and a sweeping slider, but he had to be more consistent.”
Warren’s stepdad, Tom McKinley, said: “It didn’t hurt that he grew eight inches in one year.”
All the way to 6-foot-2 prior to his senior season.
“I’m not saying this to sound like some guru,” Box said, “but with his stuff and a new work ethic, I truly believed that he could become a professional pitcher. He just needed needed a changeup and a better slider. I knew the velocity would increase.”
McKinley said Box used to say to him “just need three tickets” — meaning when Warren made the big leagues.
“And he said it over and over,” McKinley said with a laugh. “He truly believed it. Now, Coach Box is set for life (with tickets).”
But even his growth spurt and dominant performance his senior year didn’t bring many recruiters around.
“Most of the SEC schools had already filled their recruiting classes by then,” Box said. “But Southeastern Louisiana had a profile of a pitcher they needed, and Will fit that profile perfectly.”
He made steady improvement there.
“Probably gained 3 to 4 miles per hour on his fastball, His slider got even better,” Heavener said. “He came back and threw some batting practice for us and he threw really well.”
Other life-changing events happened while at Southeastern.
He met soccer player Darby Gillette. They were married last December.
He played summer ball on Martha’s Vineyard and watched players from colleges around the country. He knew he had to improve.
And one night when Southeasern faced the University of New Orleans, Yankees scout Mike Leuzinger saw him pitch.
“Turns out his wife is from Raymond and went to Prep,” McKinley said. “She was always asking him if he’d seen any prospects from Mississippi.”
Warren was projected to go between the third and fifth rounds of the 2021 MLB draft.
McKinley found out later that Leuzinger spoke up when Warren was still on the board in the eighth round. He encouraged the Yankees to take him.
One start. One scout. That’s how Warren became a New York Yankee.
“Isn’t it amazing how God instruments everything to work out?” he said.
*************
While Warren was pitching at Yankee Stadium, his half brother, Matthew McKinley, was pitching for Jackson Prep against St. Joseph. (Matthew is committed to Meridian Community College.)
Tom McKinley was at Matthew’s game and watching Will on his phone.
“For a while, they were pitching at exactly the same time. It was crazy,” he said.
Warren’s mom, Lynn, was out of town on a business trip. She was also watching both.
Box admitted he “kinda snuck away” during a Longhorns’ game to watch Warren on his phone.
Heavener got to see Warren’s first two strikeouts on his iPad before Prep’s game started.
“One of the things I’m most impressed with Will about is that when we talk, he wants to know about Matthew, how he’s doing. And he wants to know how our team is doing,” Heaverner said. “That says a lot about him as a person.”
**************
As McKinley and I talked by phone, he had another Yankees game going on TV.
“I just saw Will standing in the dugout with Max Fried and Aaron Judge,” McKinley said. “That’s the thing that seems weird to me. He knows those guys.”
When the family went to New York last season when Warren was called up to make three starts, McKinley found himself chatting with the other players’ relatives.
“Families of the players all sit in one section,” McKinley said. “When the dads get to talking, it’s almost like we’re talking about a travel team. It’s surreal. Will is one of the one percent (to make the Major Leagues.) It’s pretty cool.”
Life’s demands wouldn’t allow them to attend Warren’s debut this season.
“We’re trying to figure out when we can go to a game,” McKinley said. “And I’m sure his dad, Mike, and his wife, Linda, will go at some point, too.
“We all get along great, the four of us. Lynn and I spend more time with them than we do any other couple. Matthew considers Mike an uncle or another dad, and Mike is always supportive of Matthew.
“We kinda look at it as all four of us getting them headed in the right direction.”
#########
