New York Yankees: Evaluating Adam Warren’s Return Season In The Bronx
Brad Penner-USATSI

With the 2016 regular season over, let’s take a look back at the season Adam Warren had in his return to the Bronx.

On December 8, 2015, the New York Yankees traded Adam Warren and Brendan Ryan to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Starlin Castro. Little did Warren know that he would be returning to the Bronx in no time.

As the right-hander’s tenure with Chicago began, he saw much success in the beginning month of the year. Warren began the season by not allowing a single earned run with nine strikeouts in eight innings of work.

At first, he was looking like the pitcher the Cubs were expecting when they acquired him for their young second baseman. For an unknown reason, Warren would take a complete 180-turn the following month.

The month of May was not too kind to the former Yankee. In 11.1 innings pitched, Warren maintained a 7.15 ERA and gave up four homers. Due to the poor start to the season, the Cubs decided to send Warren down to Triple-A for a few weeks to get his mind in the right state.

Chicago would recall Warren to the big leagues as the calendar flipped to July but he would spend a limited amount of time with the club, as he was traded back to the Yankees as a part of the deal for their closer, Aroldis Chapman.

Once Warren returned to the Bronx, he reestablished his previous success in the pinstriped uniform. In his first month back he threw a 3.60 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 15 innings filling the same role that the Yankees failed to replace once they traded him.

Warren would, however, have to face some struggles to go along with his success. An outing that the righty would like to forget would come on Aug. 16 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Warren entered the game the top of the eighth inning with a 6-4 lead that would, unfortunately, be short-lived. He allowed two two-run home runs in the inning which allowed Toronto to take an 8-6 lead which eventually led the Yankees to a 12-6 loss.

Following that dreadful appearance, the right-hander seemed to lock it in for the rest of the season. From the day after his forgettable outing, Warren owned a 3.32 ERA over 19 innings along with 15 strikeouts. That is more than a team can ask from a middle-relief pitcher and is certainly a promising sign for the 29-year-old heading into next season.

Adam Warren was not an over-powering, flame throwing reliever but he got the job done for the position that he was placed in. He did not see much success in the first half of the season with the Cubs but once he came back to New York, it was vintage Warren.

Warren is under team control until the end of the 2018 season, which means he may fit in the Bomber’s plans looking into the future. The right-hander will almost certainly play a part in next year’s bullpen along with Tyler Clippard and Dellin Betances and hopefully, return the pinstripers to the postseason to the postseason for the first time since 2015.


My name is Patrick Hennessy and I am an Editor as well as the Lead Trending Writer here at ESNY. I mainly cover the New York Yankees, but I also reach out to many branches of the sports world. I have had the opportunity to broadcast my work on many different platforms and I plan on continue doing so.