Quick Yankee Notes

I don't really buy that Cashman or anyone else in the Yankee organization wants every player to be a HR hitter. I think they'd be ecstatic if Volpe became the .275/.350 hitter fans want/expect him to be. 

Analyzing the Yankees’ emergency starters for 2024

Luke Weaver

When the Yankees claimed Luke Weaver off of waivers at the end of the season, nobody expected that he would provide solid innings, and yet here he is with a guaranteed spot on the MLB roster. He was inked to a one-year $2 million deal prior to the signing of Marcus Stroman, and he’ll serve as a long reliever who could make spot starts if need be. Upon his arrival in the Bronx, Weaver began using his cutter 33.6% of the time, pitching to a 3.38 ERA in his three starts.

The lack of a reliable breaking ball creates some concerns about his profile, but breaking balls are typically the easiest pitch group to alter the shape of. We saw the 30-year-old boast a solid curveball and two different sliders, a firmer gyro slider that prioritizes vertical drop and a sweeping slider with more horizontal movement, but the Yankees might be able to help him develop a stronger breaking pitch.

With the Seattle Mariners, Weaver was a fastball-cutter-changeup-sweeper pitcher, and the Yankees could potentially build off of that mold to make him better. He gained nearly two inches of vertical break on his fastball when he came to the Yankees but decreased the sweeper reliance and went for a cutter with more vertical ride that could mirror the four-seamer. The Yankees are excellent at developing breaking balls and could tweak his to help him find a pitch that can put hitters away.

Luke Weaver’s ability to tunnel his four-seamer and cutter to deceive hitters is enough to allow both pitches to overperform their Stuff+ metrics, but having a breaking pitch that can put hitters away would be the final touch to making his profile legit. Weaver already has a good feel for his changeup, and being able to command four different pitches with dramatically different movement profiles would make him a great swingman option for the Yankees.

Steamer likes what Luke Weaver can bring to the table, projecting him for 63 innings at a 4.23 ERA and 22.2% strikeout rate, which would certainly be of benefit to the Yankees. Whether the Yankees are able to unlock more in his profile or not will determine whether I believe he’s a long reliever or competent spot starter for the team, and he will most certainly make starts for this team in 2024 if he doesn’t get hurt.

He’s the Yankees’ first man up, and I believe they signed him because they think they can get more out of his profile. It’s difficult to make in-season tweaks, but having an entire winter and Spring Training to develop certain skills and tinker with certain pitches can certainly aid the right-hander in finding consistency in his repertoire. He’s a significant step down from a pitcher like Michael King but eerily similar to Jhony Brito in the sense that he’s a swingman in desperate need of a breaking ball.

You can’t guarantee progression even if you think a team is excellent at pitching development, but the pitch mix is right up the Yankees’ alley, and there’s a reason they brought him back with guaranteed money.

Will Warren

Somerset Patriots rout Erie on Sept. 27, 2022 evening to force decisive Game 3 of Eastern League Championship Series Erie Seawolves At Somerset Patriots 9 27 22 1
The Yankees used their eight-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft on Will Warren and could come away with one of the best picks of that draft because of it. One of the best prospects in the organization, the right-hander has wicked stuff that has made him a fringe top-100 prospect, and while the MiLB data has always been good but not great, part of it is due to aggressive promotions that have seen him struggle at first before eventually adjusting to the new level.

Warren made it all the way up to Triple-A this past season and was one of the best pitchers at that level after shaking off some early-season struggles. Left-handed hitters presented issues for him, but with the improvements made to his four-seamer, he was able to pitch to a 0.63 ERA in the month of September and hold those opposite-handed hitters to a sub-.400 OPS, raising his stock a ton and looking like one of the most polished pitching prospects in the upper levels of Minor League Baseball.

Ranking in the 98th Percentile in Stuff+ (124.2) among Triple-A pitchers with at least 100 pitches thrown, and that excellent arsenal is headlined by his great sweeper. It generates over 16 inches of horizontal break with excellent swing-and-miss numbers that can dominate any right-handed hitter with how aggressive he is with his usage. He mixes in his great sinker as well with the ability to generate harmless contact on the ground, and these pitches are right up of the organization’s alley.


Will Warren put up a 3.35 ERA across 129 innings last season with the Scranton RailRiders and Somerset Patriots, but there were some concerns about his walk rate increasing. Something that people need to adjust for is the environment that he pitched in, as the International League had inflated run-scoring numbers due to the implementation of an Automatic Ball-Strike system that was inaccurate and error-prone, to say the very least.

A 10.9% walk rate is actually below the league-average mark (11.8%), and while I wouldn’t say that he has great command, it’s certainly better than the numbers in Scranton would suggest. In terms of ERA, his 3.61 ERA is significantly better than the 5.18 ERA the average pitcher sported in the International League, and he certainly has the pitchability to go with his excellent stuff.

As for what Steamer projects for Warren, they believe he’ll post a 4.12 ERA and 48.8% groundball rate across 49 innings on the Yankees next season. He’s someone who could really impact this pitching staff in both a long-relief and starting role, and it’ll be interesting to see if the Yankees have him waiting in the wings for a chance to slot into their rotation full-time in the case of an injury.

The talent is undeniable here, and if the Yankees can continue to develop his feel for the four-seamer and changeup, he’ll have the ability to dominate against both right-handed and left-handed batters.
empiresportsmedia.com/new-york-yankees/analyzing-the-yankees-emergency-starters-for-2024/

With his speed, Volpe would have tremendous value to the Yankees with that slash line.  Plus, he's strong enough where the HR's would still be there wit consistent contact. 

I am simply replying to your words, even quoting them. Projected statistics are based on prior performance as a baseline, from which Volpe has only a single year of data.  And, my wager with you for a thousand dollars is for next season.  Is it a bet?

Meanwhile, is Wells the answer as our primary catcher? But Rice hit .324 at AA last year, a LH hitting catcher. Did better than Wells or Dominguez there. Cashman will trade him, right? He'll then become a Mattingly 2 for another team. Maybe.

www.thedartmouth.com/article...n-rice-q-and-a

         The swing Volpe uses today is the product of a lot of work he put in under the eyes of Yankee coaches. I think they want him to lift the ball. He was a very different kind of hitter as a prep school star. I found this old showcase page and thought it was worth a look. 

www.perfectgame.org/Players/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=404691