FANMAIL FRIDAY: Could 2026 be the year for Will Warren's breakout? (Q&A)

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So if you're new to the show, this is our fan mail Friday episode.

We answer as many questions as we possibly can, submitted by our insiders and our everydayers.

And just wanted before we start fan mail Friday, Yankees game is starting in about 30 minutes,

6.35.

As we do this live on Friday night, two things to look out for.

Camp Schlitler making his first spring start.

And Oswaldo Cabrera coming back from that really bad ankle injury.

So it's good to see that he's going to play for the Yankees again.

Yeah.

Two big spring debuts to see out of these two guys, Camp Schlitler coming off that little

bit of a minor back injury that he had that I think was probably a little overblown,

as Yankees fans were all pre we're all just always waiting for the worst thing to happen.

These players getting hurt in the spring games.

Yeah, exactly.

Yankees fans do that.

And Oswaldo coming back again could be a really big depth piece for them up the bench throughout

the season.

So both really nice pieces to see in the lineup for these spring games.

Yep.

All right.

So let's get into fan mail Friday.

As I said, we do this every Friday.

We start with our insiders and everydayers and we always start with Betty.

And here is Betty's question.

Would you agree that spring training has revealed at this point anyway, awesome talent

by our major and minor leagueers alike?

So if the regular season started today, what was your infield look like?

Go Yankees.

Yeah.

Well, it would definitely be Ben Rice in first space.

I mean, I think that's kind of determined at this point.

The Yankees infield we've known.

I feel like for really since the season ended last year, you're going to have Ben Rice

over at first space.

They're going to have jazzed the great Britain star at a second base.

To start the year, you're going to have Caboero at short.

It looks like from old determination, Volpe is going to get his fair share of playtime

once he's ready and healthy to come back.

I do think there's a chance we didn't episode earlier on in the off season that Volpe

could lose the job to Caboero with But Caboero, but I have to play at an insane level to

take that job from him.

And then McMahon over at third, it looks like that's kind of set where it's going to

be.

You know, it feels like it's been that way since last year.

They really didn't make a lot of infield upgrade to the soft season.

Yeah, like I don't see anything happening where they'll suddenly decide to thrust

George Lombard Jr into the mix.

You know, what I mean, like you're not going to see anything like that.

It's pretty much what we thought it was going to be when spring training started

or any injuries.

So yeah, I'm I'm assuming it's going to be the same.

The past couple of days or at least Tuesday and Thursday, they played around with Ryan

McMahon at short, but that's really just an emergency situation in case that it didn't

go play short.

No, it didn't go.

It didn't go that great.

Yeah, no, it didn't go that well.

So maybe not all maybe maybe it's easier for short stops to go to third than third

basement to short.

You know, I don't know that that unfortunately, neither of those positions are like first

base where people just say throw them at first base.

You can play you can handle it.

No one thinks that anyone can handle a short and third base.

So I actually don't know with the I don't think I don't know if there is a natural switch

between third and short stop.

So I don't know if any of it works ever like you need a lot of range to play short stop.

And you need really quick like skills to get to handle third base.

So I especially nowadays with guys like Stanton and the right hand in the left hand

in batter's box right handed.

It's I don't know how any of these guys switch positions once on the major league level.

It's not it's not as common as to be we think it is because of all the youth baseball

were around 24 seven right.

Let's go to David Epstasy.

He says we have seen two years of steady improvement from the war in the last two years.

How do you see his 2026 project day?

Well, we spoke about this the other day.

I'm excited that he has those two years under his belt.

I just would like for him to be more consistent.

And I also said this the other day on the show.

It's okay.

If a starting pitcher has a blow up every once in a while.

The best pitchers out there have bad starts.

Things happen.

Sometimes you don't feel good in the bullpen before the game.

Sometimes you feel great in the bullpen before the game and then you can't throw a pitch

where you want to throw it like your command on your control is gone and something happens.

I would just rather will Warren be more consistent and he doesn't need to be the ace.

We don't need him to go out there and strike out 12 people at a time.

Would it be nice?

But we're not expecting will Warren to be anything more than a five at this point.

And I think him knowing that is key, right?

He knows where his position is on this roster.

He knows that he has not a ton expected out of him and I think that's a good thing.

Some guys thrive under that pressure, but when you're a younger player who hasn't really

established their career, I don't know if you would totally thrive under knowing that

you need to be at number two or number three this early on in your career.

So he took a decent amount of decent chunk of time to develop as a player.

He's 27 years old already.

It took till he was 25 to come up his projections on baseball reference right now are eight

and eight four, five, nine, ERA this year, which honestly, I would take that.

I think the Yankees would take it too.

If he gives you a four, five, nine, ERA is your five starter.

This team should be able to score enough runs for that to be fine.

And again, they're going to have depth that five starter.

I think the competition is a good thing too.

There's going to be a lot of guys fighting for that five spot this year.

They have depth there.

So I do think it's a good thing to have him kind of fighting for that spot at the back

end of the rotation.

Right.

Plus, the Dodgers have proven that you can never have enough pitching.

So no, they just signed other aces around the league to get there.

Right.

But you know, with Cole coming back, Rodan Clark Schmidt, you got three guys who can be

plugged into the rotation.

And then you have all these other guys who are fighting for, I mean, who would be fighting

for spots.

Yeah.

Luis heel.

I mean, well, Warren, like you've got plenty of talent on this team, especially in the

starting pitching field.

So even Ryan Wethers, because who knows they can use him as the starter as well.

You know, it's funny.

We talked about the other day, those, those extra bullpen spots that they're going to have,

well, not really have.

There's two spots that are open that are like not guaranteed if who's going to get them.

Quite frankly, one of the starters we didn't even go, go incorporate into who could get one

of those bullpen spots, because they can want to throw one of those guys in the bullpen.

So they're going to have guys with minor league options that are going to be in AAA this

year.

Yep.

Our final question of this segment is from insider Gary.

He says, if judge and company win the WBC, is that an extra notch on his belt to win over

Hall of Fame voters?

If he never gets a world series championship, or is it just another awesome thing in a pile

of awesome things that he's done that doesn't matter much in the end.

Thanks as always for all you do, guys.

Proud to be an insider to support all of your hours of hard work.

Thank you, Gary.

That is appreciated.

I would say the latter.

I think it definitely is an awesome thing and he'll talk it up.

But I do think it's another awesome thing piled in a pile of awesome things.

I don't think it's going to necessarily judge if judge wins the WBC this year, which by

the way, a couple of hours prior to it starting for the United States, they better win the

whole thing this year.

The look with Dr. Rosser looks like, but besides that, I think judge would tell you that

he would trade 10 WBC titles for a world series of Yankees.

It definitely means a lot more to him to win it.

And I think he'll frame it under.

It means a lot to win for his country, but I think it'll actually a Yankee world series

would mean the most to him.

And by the way, I don't think it.

I don't think a world series with a caliber of player like judge, adding a world series

to his belt is not going to mean much when it comes to a Hall of Fame candidate.

He's going to get in the Hall of Fame.

Exactly.

Like him and Cole are the two guys in this roster that are going to wind up in the Hall of

Fame.

It's guys like early on in their career, I don't I don't think Yankees have any really

first notch Hall of Famers in the roster.

But let's just say, let's say Max Friede, right, who's had a couple of really good seasons

under two under three ERAs, like let's say he drinks together five more years of ERAs

under three and wins two Saiyans.

And then he starts getting himself into the Hall of Fame candidacy.

He's going to be a guy that a world series would put him above the notch of getting

him into the Hall of Fame.

But guys like judge and Cole that are all time players, I don't think I don't think

championship's matter much for those type of players.

I think it really matters for the championship's matter when it comes to the Hall of Fame

for fringe players and that one little extra achievement puts you over the notch of getting

you in.

But when it comes to all time, greats like judge who's going to have 500 home runs,

who's going to have, you know, already has three MVP's likely to win more.

I don't think it matters as much for those guys.

Right.

Right.

I'd agree with that.

All right.

Coming up, we have more questions from our insiders and from our every dayers next.

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We want to thank you guys for making locked on Yankees your first listen of the day and

thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network guys baseball is back and

you can lock in by joining the everyday air club which gets you head free episodes and access

to our group chat on discord and we have the all new all access level which gets you everything

we just told you about plus bonus episodes a stacy gots earliest newsletter and one on one

texting I'm including a lot more so go over to locked on Yankees out supercast.com or click on

the QR code on our screen to tap the link in our show notes. Stacy stay tuned for my weirdest

things that happened during the steroid era episode that'll be coming out on the everyday

air club so you guys want to be able to watch those things is there a newsletter coming out

from the stacy gots earliest camp yes I'm going to start it next week good so we're looking

forward to that stacy getting back into the writing fold that'll be very interesting yeah let's

start off our insider questions for segment two with Eric s Eric s says famil friday question

do you think hall of fame voting should be opened up to broadcasters like bob caustis and baseball

historians is the age of just writers and an anarchism in the 21st century world I love that

and anachronism anachronism wow what an SAT word of the day um stacy I've got a hard I have a

question can I go first on this one sure I have a really strong opinion here yeah uh

apps uh freaking lootly open this up to everyone but the writers to be quite honest with you

baseball voting was done by the writers years ago because the primary source of covering this

sport was writing the way people track the sport was through newspapers the way people got their

information was through the newspapers that was how the sport was covered yet it's still covered

on the writing format but stacy print is like the last format I think now where people get their

baseball information from as opposed to it used to being in the first I'm not saying print media

don't have a right to cover the sport and print media don't have a valuable opinion that's not

at all what I'm saying but there are a lot of people out there that simply don't write for the

sport anymore because it doesn't make sense to because that's not where people cover the sport

and I think it should be open to broadcasts absolutely I mean Bob Costa doesn't have a whole

of fame vote and the reason why Bob Costa doesn't have a whole of fame vote is because he didn't want

to write and that's ridiculous because he's one of the top historians in the history of baseball

and there's guys out there like Jeff Passon who want to have their report that their vote one day

and that's why he still writes I mean I don't think Jeff Passon maybe he does have a passion

for writing but I think overall he still writes articles once a month or so for ESPN because

simply he wants to have a whole of fame vote one day and he's had the requisite years of writing

the sport to do that I think it's stupid and it's antiquated and we should not be having those

guys vote for the whole of fame and not anymore but don't them to be the sole voters for the whole

of him anymore right no I don't have anything to add I don't I just think it's crazy that we

used to be stuck with this format that you know yes was valuable a hundred years ago when we were

deciding this stuff but now it's it's not the same the sport has covered a completely different way

it just it's frustrating that baseball kind of refuses to change in some elements I'm not saying

that print media doesn't have a place in the game but there's so many other places that in mediums

that's covered in now how will we not convert that I just find it a little while right um let's

let's move on I guess our next question is from Chris F hey guys great great episode on Monday made

me think is Philly boy gonna trash judge when he gets 99 retired I mean he is for sure getting

one guarantee they already have a spot reserved in Monument Park question is okay second part of the

question who else on the team right now might have a shot at getting their number retired other

than the big guy I already mentioned Cole question mark and I agree with you on Brian or with you

Brian on Guardian definitely one of my faves but number uh no on retiring 11 that's Volpe's job

just kidding love the pod and let's go Yankees I don't know who excuse me for being wrong who is

Philly guy Philly boy that that I was crashing oh okay I got it okay he's joking about him

crashing CC so he thinks he's in a he'll trash judge when the time I want to fill it alphia for

some reason so excuse me for that um that's how that's how a relevant Phil is in my brain

he'll be retired by the time judge for retires and is anywhere near getting a number

yeah and and Phil must take one up getting his number retire either uh judge book at 99 retired

for sure I mean he'd have to do something I mean nothing would happen I think at this point to get

judge from not having his number retired uh I'd say yes to Cole um it would definitely help

Cole's cause if he wins a world series um but I still think he's a hall of fame all time great

picture enough to get his number retired I do he's gonna hit a lot of career milestones at the Yankees

um that'll matter as opposed to future Stacey I don't know if there's someone after that

I'm the current day roster I don't think there's a player on the roster it would have to take a

a Reggie Jackson type performance from a current player in like a big moment to get them their

number retired it's like there's there's tons of debate the Yankees have retired too many numbers

over the year and that should be um in every day or club bonus episode by the way is the Yankees

having too many numbers to hire because there are some cases we could look into of guys that like

just genuinely genuinely don't need a number retired at all like Reggie Jackson's one of them

with Reggie Jackson Reggie Jackson was here for five years if he doesn't have that game in the

world series he doesn't get a number retired like plain and simple like he just got a number retire

because of that one moment which is great but come on um I if it's a Ben Rice has like a four

home run game in a world series game like that could catapult him into that category just because of

that but right now with how the roster looks like no I don't think there's anybody that's getting

the number retired yeah maybe I guy I could see doing something crazy like a Reggie Jackson type

thing it's like if Stanton goes off in a world series which I mean he's capable of doing stay

Stan has one of those series like where he has six home runs in a world series and it just you

know catapult him to a win that could get his number retired because he's an all-time great play

that's actually back to Hall of Fame question Stanton could get in the Hall of Fame

yeah I think if he gets 500 hell runs which I mean all in all likelihood bar and crazy injuries

he'd get he would get that so yeah I think that's that's the other guy that's going to get into

the Hall of Fame yeah not his number retired though right uh let's go to Rubin Rubin says

who do you think will be the eight man bullpen on opening day as of now well we actually Rubin

should go back to our episode from two days ago I believe where we broke down bullpen uh where

you guys can get that information um on who we have it's really down to two spots that that

they're going to have to decide between and and and really it's kind of one spot because we

talked about a Kate Kate winquest if they don't put him on the roster on the opening day

the Cardinals have an opportunity to take him back and with the way the Cardinals season looks

in how they're trying to acquire a younger you know talent it's likely the Cardinals would take

him back because they don't have really anybody on the roster right now so you know we know who the

the regulars are and the bullpen the bednars the duvalls the Tim Hills um we have Fernando Cruz like

we have those figured out it's really one spot available and and you know with other guys having

minor league options like we I think we're both kind of in support of La Grande and I think at some

point in 26 you're going to see La Grande on the roster but as of now I actually think it's you

know in the plus money or it's an underdog choice that La Grande winds up may being in the

bullpen on opening day just because they don't have a lot enough spots so yeah go back to our

episode from you need to go we really broke it down to a fine powder all right that's if

our insider questions we have one more question from every day or Tom Langen we did have a question

from Kevin Sweeney I would like to address this Kevin we just answered your question about retired

numbers and I didn't realize there was a double question until I was just looking at the run down

and thought oh so you got your answer a couple of questions ago I apologize but keep submitting

we'll answer your question next week so this one from Tom what was your favorite game that the

Yankees lost interesting I was a game one of the 2012 ALCS Yankees down oh four came back to tie it

in the bottom of the ninth even though the end of the game was tragic Jeter's ankle and it ended

with a loss it was still one of the greatest experiences I had at the ballpark I don't know how

that's your answer like watching Derek Jeter's career basically end in that moment yeah

yeah that's a rough one I don't have a favorite loss no because all the all the big games that I've

been to like postseason games stuff when they lose those games I'm devastated yeah like so I don't

know I don't I don't I mean I guess I could say the world series that I went to I went to you know

the gaming the Dodger series game four Freddie Freeman had another whole lot of

them but that's the only world series game I've been to but if it's if it's just your favorite

game that the Yankees lost like overall then it would it would be the last game of 2011 when

Evan Longoria walked off against them because it meant the Red Sox were knocked out of the playoffs

because that that spring was so annoying like everyone was anointing the Red Sox and the fillies

and everyone else was like well then why are we playing a season if they're automatically

going to make the the world series and I don't remember if they predicted the Red Sox to

one of the fillies to win but they predicted both those teams to make the world series Red Sox

don't even make the playoffs and Philly got eliminated in the playoffs so those Philly teams by the

way those Philly teams had no business only winning one championship yeah and by the way the one

they the one they won was in 2008 which wasn't even their best team in that era right that those

pitching staffs were so ridiculous that they had no business only one of one title right all right

so that does it for our family Friday questions thank you guys for submitting everything and

coming up next we have some interesting things to talk about from around the leagues so we'll do

that next this week's MLB top 100 highlight is brought to you by MLB the show 2026 the latest

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trex.com slash docs the last segment of another week gone by another week waiting until opening day

gets here and again meaningful baseball in just like what a little over an hour stay see

world baseball classic or by the way if you're a gambling man or woman uh team USA

is a nine and a half run favorite against Brazil that is absurd and in baseball that it's not football

they are a nine and a half run favorite in baseball which is one of the crazier things i've

ever said out loud it is it's just insane to hear uh so expect them to dominate that game and

probably they're uh their group we'll see what winds up happening after that but their yeah USA

is favored to win this tournament yeah they should win this tournament let's hope they do yeah uh

some news from around the league stay see some fun stuff to talk about as we close out the week here

yes so according to MLB pipeline this came out on i believe it was on Thursday the brewers now have

the best farm system in baseball with the Dodgers taking a step back and interestingly enough the

Yankees are now dropped to number 26 so we'll be talking about that next week because i feel like

we need to talk about that next week that's that's devastating and we'll be doing again Tuesdays

i believe the rest of the year will be our minor league previews are going into updates throughout

the entire season will be there for you guys yeah if you're new to the show um we used to do miners

Mondays but then we realized that coming back from a weekend where we don't do shows and we have to

talk about three games usually yeah it's not enough time to talk about the miners so we changed it

to our Tuesday track through the miners so we'll be doing that again starting when the miners start

exactly yeah so we're looking forward to that it does give you guys a really good informative

keep up on what's going on in the minor league system there's two notes from here that i find

just absurd in their own right the fact that the brewers are such a well-run organization that they

their main number one this is not losing franchise these right the team that's competitive

every single year makes good trades every single year actually has a decent size payroll

and has the best farm system in all baseball so if they're really good this year

they have the means to upgrade at the deadline to get themselves better to push for a world series

and if they're mid-range they either decide to commit and try and get a world series

or they can just stay the pat and how hope their prospects develop and move into like they are

such a well-run organization the only one they're not as well run as is the Los Angeles Dodgers

who rank at number two which is my second absurd note here i mean stacy they've got a three

hundred million dollar payroll they're grossly over the tax but don't care at all i mean

it's again we've to be discussed it all all season and it remains true it's all jealousy don't

hate on the Dodgers don't hate on what they do you're just jealous of them i wish the Yankees were

number two unfortunately a 24 spots below that but this team is so perfectly run this organization

is so perfectly run they could they are they literally can withstand multiple injuries to their

core and still be fine and still be a top tier team for the world series that's how good they are

and how well they're built honestly yeah it's uh it's gross to witness but i do like and i will pull

back the curtain a bit i was in a meeting with some hosts from different sports locked on sports

and they were talking about disliking the Dodgers they're from various places and i said you know

as a Yankee fan and a Yankee host i feel good about that they're like yeah you guys aren't the

evil empire anymore it's the Dodgers yeah but i you know what though if i'd rather be the

evil empire from the Yankees because i would too but i just like that people are not hating us

as much because it gets tiring to hear people talk about hating the Yankees all the time so i kind

of like that that um title has been passed on to the Dodgers for a bit like you guys you guys have

fun with that yeah have fun with that enjoy enjoy the whole world dating you yeah enjoy it it's

it's actually it is it is fun for a while but then it gets tiring you know Yankee fan work

so the other day this is so funny on Thursday the blue chase lost a game on an ABS challenge

which i thought was the greatest thing ever so it looked like they had bases loaded so they had

a chance to actually i think tie the game and so the brace pitcher who i don't know who it was

was the end of the game i don't know who it was but through the pitch and he immediately challenged it

and i mean it got a sliver of the zone but because of ABS it was reversed from a ball to a strike

it turned into strike three and the game ended wow i bet we're gonna see that in the regular season right

like yeah it's got it's gonna have to happen yeah um that's a turn of emotions though

the only thing i don't i don't like is the is the thought of that happening in a playoff game

like how unbelievably anticlimactic can you get i where are they going to use it in the playoffs i

thought they were assuming if they're going to i mean if they're going to use it throughout the

entire regular season why would they not use it in the post well they don't do the ghost runner

in the playoffs right it's true it's true it's a good point so i don't know i feel like they

just do it like like once they instituted replay right i think we've always been like worried and

we got like insanely close last year with the play at home play of like a champion champion

decided on a replay because there's something that's so wrong about that and you remember coming

back from the commercial break you've got the whole nation of canada worrying about like what's

going to happen like let's go here from what apple b's has to say before we get back to seeing if

you won the world series or not and we got that moment for the first time where a replay was deciding

a title winner and it actually didn't right like normally you want the last out to happen to the

team can immediately celebrate and launch their gloves in the air like an organic thing not like

waiting for someone to make a decision and you didn't get that with iKF i mean again the blue

just need a lot of boxing match you're not sitting there waiting for the judges to make their

decision and that's what it felt like so imagine do you imagine like the Yankees are close to

many a world series and and uh David Bednar has to put his hand on top of his head to challenge

a strike call and then they go let's go to the replay and they see if it's a strike and it is

a strike and then they get to celebrate i mean i'll take a championship however i get it at this

point but it would be really just weird to see it happen that way i think i wonder if it is

i don't even know if i've seen a formal announcement on if they're using it um but i mean it's i

feel like at some point we're heading in that direction anyway right if it's successful in year one

we're gonna have it eventually in year two and uh and yes i did just search it or abs challenge

system will be using the mlb playoff starting in 2026 interesting okay so i mean yeah you're gonna

if it works they've tested it enough to determine that it works in the major league regular season

so i guess they're gonna use it in the postseason which works but i mean so weird just i mean

yes we're we're we're we're walking into dangerous waters certain teams are going to be like

with certain players do not touch your helmet i don't know jazz do not touch it

jazz where other guys will have free reign um we spoke about it was it last week on the show okay

the weeks are running together but we joked about how good wan soto is probably gonna be at this

yeah that i'm actually excited for and i actually i thought who wrote i can't remember who wrote

the article i saw it briefly on instagram but they were discussing the same thing about how exciting

it's gonna be to see wan soto in action when he i mean he has a great take on the strike zone anyway

so what one of the best eyes in baseball history it's amazing i'm actually yet that i'm excited for

i'm excited for a lot of things about the abs system honestly i i think it's um i'm excited to kind

of wean the umpires uh you know i guess wean their influence on the game out of the out of the game

can you think of a player from the past that you wish could have been around for abs

oh a pitcher or or uh a batter someone who had a good eye

derrick jitter would have really utilized it well because he had a great eye

he was also he was also derrick jitter is one of the only guys in baseball history that was able

to use the force to push a ball out of the strike zone he moved his hands like that um that would

take me a bit to think of because there's plenty of guys that that that i bet could have been

really good at it but my immediate thought was jason jambi because he was also good at seeing

the strike zone which was kind of amazing because um i don't know if you realize this or if people

realize this but in some cases the lighter your eyes are the more you're sensitive to light and it's

not as easy for you to see and jason jambi had pretty light light eyes unless you're like me and you

have dark eyes but you're neurodivergent and you still have light sensitivity and the dark

eyes don't matter yeah it doesn't matter i'm like a vampire when i step out into the sun

i'm i'm literally like oh so i don't know how people go out in the sun i got one i got one

that i i think would have taken uh insane advantage over a bs each aros azuki oh just because

everything that he seemed to do in the game he found every little edge imaginable in the game

i think he would have found a way to be tremendous at this would barry bans have been even better

getting on base with a bs i don't know but it feels like most of the walks that he got were

intentional that's why his his obp was through the roof most years um

that would be one that i think i think i need like time to think of that question that's a really

good question though i sometimes come up with them here sometimes just sometimes all right well

thank you guys for tuning in to this live edition of locked on yankees make sure you subscribe and

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channel if you're listening on audio make locked on mlb your second listen of the day so that'll

do it for this edition of locked on yankees i'm stecy gots ulyas and i'm brim again we'll catch you

guys on monday

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