I BELIEVE IN WARREN, BUT I'M NOT THERE YET WITH WEATHERS

Will Warren is starting to make me rethink things—and I don’t say that lightly.

I’ve watched enough of him now to admit it: the kid is growing up in front of us. Not in a flashy, highlight-reel way every night, but in that quieter, more annoying-to-opposing-teams way where suddenly the box score looks clean and you’re not entirely sure when it stopped being a “question mark” start and turned into “oh, he’s actually getting us through this.” I’m not all-in on the hype train, but I’ll give credit where it’s due—he’s finding real footing.

After a 2025 rookie season where he basically became a baseball workhorse—33 starts, steady production, and the kind of availability managers dream about—he’s carried that into 2026 and turned the dial up. Through his first five starts, the results have taken a noticeable step forward, with a 2.49 ERA that doesn’t feel like a small sample fluke so much as a continuation of real development.

What’s changed isn’t just luck or vibes either. There’s been actual refinement here. A slight tweak in his positioning on the rubber, some mechanical cleanup, and suddenly his stuff is playing up. The metrics back it too—better command, more strikes in the zone, and most importantly for a Yankees fan’s blood pressure, fewer free passes. He’s attacking hitters instead of auditioning for a full-count drama series every inning.

And durability? That part matters more than people admit. Thirty-three starts last year wasn’t just a stat—it was survival. Now he’s carrying that same “give me the ball every fifth day” energy into this season and actually pitching deep enough into games to let the bullpen breathe. That alone earns you a few extra innings of goodwill in New York.

So yeah… prove me wrong, Will. I kind of like where this is going.

Now, Ryan Weathers is a different conversation entirely—and I’m not ready to be sold just because the box score smiled at him once.

I’m calling the last good outing what it felt like: a break in the weather, not a forecast change. There’s history here that makes Yankees fans side-eye these things anyway—his name alone carries a faint echo from a different era, and no, that doesn’t automatically translate into present-day trust.

And look, I get it, he’s had moments this season. But there’s still a lot of “hold on a second” baked into his profile. He’s had starts where things get loud in a hurry—like the April 14 outing where the Angels turned the baseball into souvenir material. It was one of those weird stat lines where you almost have to double-check the franchise record book just to confirm it actually happened: double-digit strikeouts mixed with multiple home runs allowed in the same game. That’s not balance—that’s chaos with a uniform on.

The underlying concerns are still there too. Too much hard contact. A barrel rate that makes you wince a little. A ground-ball profile that doesn’t quite rescue him when the ball is lifted in a park like Yankee Stadium. And when hitters aren’t missing, the pitch count climbs fast enough that you can practically see the bullpen phone ringing before the fifth inning ends.

Even some of the deeper evaluations have pointed out the same thing: the secondary pitches flash potential but don’t always behave, and when the curve or changeup isn’t landing, things tend to unravel quickly. The result is usually the same storyline—five-ish innings, a few too many stressful frames, and a manager quietly hoping the bullpen remembered to stretch.

So where does that leave it? Honestly, somewhere in the middle of “interesting addition” and “let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

The Yankees, as a whole, are rolling right now. The rotation has held together better than expected, and there’s real reason for optimism. But not every piece is equally convincing just yet. Warren feels like he’s trending upward and earning trust start by start. Weathers still feels like a guy you keep watching with your arms crossed, waiting for the sample size to stop arguing with itself.

For now, it’s working. The results are there as a team. But some stories are still being written in pencil—and Weathers is very much one of them. Sorry, it wouldn't be Bleeding Yankee Blue without a harsh, real opinion. Deal with it.