There’s always buzz in Spring Training, but oftentimes the Yankees have a lot going on that can be perceived as good or bad.
Being able to separate the real from the fake is important during the Grapefruit League, and we’re looking to identify some tweaks around camp that are legit.
If it’s not something affected by quality of competition, it’s something that has a chance to matter, but we’re hyperfocusing on the things with the greatest chances of impacting that player’s future production.
We can’t accurate assess to what degree it will impact these players, but it certainly caught my eye and could help these players have big 2026 campaigns.
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Will Warren Is Giving Hitters a New Look
This seems like a minor change, but Will Warren standing closer to the third-base side as discussed by Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News has resulted in a rather significant improvement.
His horizontal release point has increased from 2.5 feet to 3.5 feet, a massive change because of how unique of a look it gives him relative to the rest of baseball.
Among RHP who threw at least 250 pitches last season, only eight of them had a release point wider than 3.50 feet which has resulted in massive gains in his Stuff+ scores.
The reason this has such a positive impact is that it creates better Horizontal Approach Angle, a stat that tracks the angle at which the ball crosses the plate horizontally.
By releasing the ball further towards the third-base side of the plate, he can move the ball east-west with even sharper angles that will disrupt hitter’s swing decisions if he locates well.
We can’t know how much his ERA, FIP, or K% will be effected by the change, but Eno Sarris’ Stuff+ model gave a strong thumbs up to this change.
After having a 103 Stuff+ on his updated version of the model, Will Warren’s first outing of Spring Training scored him a 121 Stuff+ which matches what Ryan Weathers had in his electric outing on Wednesday.
Will Warren had a 4.07 FIP and 4.08 SIERA last year, improvements to those slightly-above-average marks in 2026 could make him a mid-rotation starter for the Yankees.
Ryan Weathers’ New Pitch Shapes…Maybe Not His Velocity
There are people who want to put on ear muffs when they hear Ryan Weathers’ name, as he burned fantasy baseball players after pump-faking a big breakout in the 2025 season.
He was sitting 97.7 MPH on his four-seamer with 17.4 inches of ride during Spring Training before seeing that regress to a 96.9 MPH and 16 inches of ride in the regular season, so I won’t assume that 98.5 MPH velocity is the new norm.
I do think there were real changes worth paying attention to during his outing against the Nationals, as the left-hander displayed a more aggressive usage of his gyro slider and sinker.
Both the sinker and slider made some pretty noticable changes in movement while we also saw much-improved spin rates, which could be a result of altered grips.
Ryan Weathers’ pitch plot reflects the deep mix he has gained by pushing the sinker-slider usage, and they could be important weapons for attacking his biggest flaws.
Left-handed hitters crushed his fastball last season and they slugged .567 overall against him during the 2025 season, a pitch that can dart into their hands while having another breaking ball makes it harder for them to sit fastball-sweeper.
All five of the pitches he threw could get regular usage this upcoming season, and with the shapes we saw, they’ll all grade out as above-average weapons.
Having a deep pitch matters a ton with how rapidly hitters have progressed in the Statcast Era, and I’m forecasting that a healthy Ryan Weathers contend for a playoff start in his first year with the Yankees.
The Yankees Could Turned Deadline Flop Into a Win
Jake Bird’s pitch mix lacked a bridge pitch sitting in-between his sinker-sweeper mix to keep opposing hitters from easily guessing his next pitch out of hand.
The right-hander has begun throwing a cutter which has good ride and velocity, and this pitch could be the missing piece that completes his repertoire.
He now has at least one fastball and one breaking ball for both lefties and righties, and the pitch sits right around the zero-line in regard to horizontal movement.
I’m pretty excited to see how this pitch performs once the regular season begins, but this is a project that Bird has been working on since his demotion to Triple-A.
This pitch performed well in Scranton, he seemed to be able to attack the zone with it regularly which is a good sign given how shotty Bird’s strike-throwing abilities can be.
Having something he can throw in-zone consistently and maybe even miss some bats with is exactly what he needed, and the shape of this pitch covers a previously gaping hole in his pitch plot.
I think he’s got plenty of fans inside the Yankees’ organization, and I expect him to get every chance to make the Yankees’ bullpen for Opening Day.