Austin Warren Interview: From JUCO Shortstop to Mets Pitcher

Austin Warren didn’t think he’d be playing professional baseball.

He had just started his freshman year at a community college in North Carolina. There weren’t any NCAA offers out of high school. He was a light-hitting shortstop with minimal power. Like any other JUCO baseball player, he just wanted to take his career as far as it could go.

But through a switch to the mound, Warren found his path. He pitched out of the JUCO ranks onto a Division I team, then dominated his senior year en route to getting drafted. Now with his third big league organization—the New York Mets—the aspirations only get higher for the college infielder-turned-MLB pitcher. He’s currently with Triple-A Syracuse, trying to earn his way back to the big league club after making a scoreless appearance for New York in early May.

“That’s definitely the goal—to get back to the bigs and stick,” Warren said. “And be a key part of the bullpen.”

Competitive Bowling in High School

As a high schooler in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Warren had more frames bowled than innings pitched.

On the baseball field, he was strictly an infielder. He started his freshman year at second while his older cousin played shortstop. Once his cousin graduated, he took over as the team’s primary shortstop.

A case could be made that baseball wasn’t even his best sport in high school. He was an all-conference bowler, stemming from an impromptu decision he and a few of his baseball teammates made to join the bowling team. The squad was coached by his junior year English teacher.

“He said, ‘Y’all should come out and try out!'” Warren recalled. “We’re like, ‘All right. Say less.'”

Warren had practiced bowling at a young age while his grandmother played in a league. Beyond that, he’d mostly only bowled at birthday parties or outings with friends. But he made the bowling team while averaging over 150. He quickly ascended to the team’s top slot in matches.

When he got to individuals at the end of the season, he beat a senior who had won it every year—a kid who was coincidentally one of his rivals in baseball.

“Obviously, I can’t really say there are rivals for bowling,” Warren said.

Warren bowled around 240, 230 and 220 in his three-game series. And so he moved on to the North Carolina state bowling tournament. He showed up with a single ball and house shoes, while most of his competitors had an entire suitcase with four balls and their own shoes, towels and gear.

Warren ended up placing third out of 20 contestants in the state tournament.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said.

Finding His Niche on the Diamond

As a baseball player, Warren’s only real opportunities coming out of high school were at the JUCO level. He hit for a high batting average in high school, but his tools didn’t jump off the page. He got to Wake Tech Community College—just an hour drive from his hometown—as a shortstop.

On the first day of practice, Warren recalled being overwhelmed by the close to 100 players trying out.

“I’m like, ‘All right, what is going on?'” Warren recalled. “‘I’ve gotta beat out all these kids just to play?'”

His coach pulled him to the side for some encouragement. He told Warren that many of the kids weren’t going to make the team, or they wouldn’t have the grades to play.

Warren went on to have an okay freshman season at Wake Tech. He batted .259 in 39 games as a contact-first hitter with little power. He hit nine doubles and had 18 RBIs. At the time, his numbers blended in with thousands of JUCO baseball players around the country.

He was still eligible to play American Legion Baseball that summer, combining to form a team with some of the best players from his home county. He suggested to his Legion coach that he try pitching. Warren knew he had a good arm, and he wanted to close a couple games out and see how it goes.

Warren immediately sat 90-91 mph with his fastball. He only had under 10 innings on the mound that summer, but he was punching kids out with ease.

When he got back to Wake Tech for his sophomore year, he insisted that his coach let him pitch.

“I knew I probably didn’t have a career as a position player,” Warren said. “Just, without power… You’ve gotta hit home runs and steal bases.”

He built his arm up and joined the Wake Tech pitching staff as a starter and reliever. He exclusively attacked hitters with a fastball-curveball mix. He continued playing the field, too, as a two-way guy. He actually made strides as a hitter, posting a .302 batting average in 52 games. But his slugging percentage was just .396, with nine doubles, two triples and no homers in 139 at-bats. He walked 16 times and struck out 16 times.

In his first collegiate pitching appearance, he surrendered two runs in two innings against North Carolina State University’s club team. The outing included a walk and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded.

But with more appearances and the chance to settle in, he found his form on the mound. He made 14 appearances to go with a 2.69 ERA. He struck out 83 and walked 43 in 67 innings—self-admittedly high walk numbers, but still a strong enough body of work that he started getting offers from four-year schools around halfway through the season.

“That sparked my love for the game again,” Warren said. “I still didn’t know if I had a career in it, but…I had a bunch of offers to some small D-II schools, and had some walk-on opportunities for Division I.”

He ended up getting noticed by UNC Wilmington. When the school sent somebody to watch him, Warren hit a double and stole a base, in addition to throwing 91-92 in a clean inning.

Warren went to UNCW as a two-way player, initially. It was tough to maintain, he explained, having to go from the cages, to taking ground balls, to fitting his bullpens in, all in the span of a practice.

He dominated on the mound in fall ball. He was the team’s fall pitcher of the year, prompting an honest conversation in his exit meeting.

“We see you’ve got a career pitching,” Warren recalled being told. “We think if you hang the bat up and focus on that, you could potentially go do something.”

So, as a junior in college, his focus turned solely to pitching. In his first season of D-I baseball, he made 24 appearances with mixed results. He was still using just a two-pitch mix, turning his curveball into more of a hard slider. He struck out 52 in 47 innings, but he posted a 6.51 ERA and gave up almost two home runs per nine innings. He wasn’t consistent enough to get drafted, so he came back to UNCW for his fourth year of eligibility.

Once again, Warren shined in fall ball and was named the fall pitcher of the year. It was almost like Groundhog Day. He was primed and determined to have a strong season.

Naturally, in his first outing of the spring, he gave up a home run. He surrendered two runs and got three outs against Eastern Kentucky.

“I was like, ‘All right, I can’t have that happen,'” Warren said.

It was over a month before Warren would allow another earned run. He only gave up two more homers all season, pitching to a 1.75 ERA in 51 1/3 innings. He increased his K/9 to 11.2 from 10.0 the year prior, and he lowered his BB/9 from 4.6 to 2.3. He allowed just 33 hits after giving up 57 the previous season. It was exactly the type of breakout he needed to get his name in draft conversations.

“That kind of did it for me, and that’s honestly what got me drafted,” Warren said. “I was thankful.”

Getting Drafted and Coming Up Through the Angels’ System

While Warren had made three starts during his junior year, his success as a senior came entirely in the bullpen. He made 28 appearances, all in relief.

“I think my coaches noticed when I was going one, maybe a little one-plus, I was just dominant,” Warren said. “And then I kind of would lean off after that. But, I mean, I don’t dislike starting. It’s always nice having ‘That day is your day,’ and kind of being in control of the game… Being out of ‘pen is fine, too; you want to be locked in the game the whole time. You want to be moving around, because you just never know when the phone call’s gonna ring, it’s gonna be you. You don’t want to be caught off guard or anything. But I like having the ball in my hand, really. That’s about it.”

Warren was on a UNCW team with multiple other draftees, including current big league catcher Ryan Jeffers. It helped Warren get exposure in front of scouts.

The 2018 Seahawks went to the Greenville Regional. They eventually lost to South Carolina in the regional final. While they were on the bus home that night, the wounds of defeat still fresh, Jeffers was picked in the second round by the Minnesota Twins.

The next day, back in Wilmington, Warren got a call from the Los Angeles Angels. They were drafting him in the sixth round. He was, as he recalled, the first college senior taken in the draft.

During college, Warren had found his success almost exclusively with a fastball-breaking ball mix. He threw his slider in the upper 80s and didn’t have any other secondary offerings. He realized he needed something softer. So he started working on a changeup, then progressively added some more pitches to complete his arsenal.

“Heck, I didn’t know what analytics was, in the pitching department, until, shoot, 2019, maybe,” Warren said. “That’s when it first started coming around a little bit… Definitely pro ball was when the arsenal came alive.”

Warren made his professional debut in 2018, quickly moving up from the Rookie-level Orem Owlz to the Single-A Burlington Bees. His first full season, in 2019, he spent most of the year in High-A Inland Empire before pitching 14 innings at Double-A Mobile. He posted a 3.12 ERA with 12 K/9 over 57 2/3 innings between the two levels.

He pitched for the Mesa Solar Sox later that year in the Arizona Fall League, where the coaches continued working with him on his pitch mix. He allowed just two earned runs in 11 2/3 innings that fall, with 15 strikeouts and only two walks. The Angels didn’t want him throwing so many two-seam fastballs at the time — something Warren noted has changed a lot since then with how prevalent two-seams and sinkers are around the game.

He now throws both a four-seam and a two-seam, in addition to a sweeper, cutter and occasional changeup. He essentially has a starter’s arsenal despite spending most of his career in the bullpen. But it’s what he’s comfortable with, and it’s what’s gotten him this far.

The 2020 minor league season was canceled due to COVID-19. Warren didn’t attend the eventual “spring training 2.0” at all.

“They kind of had that weirdly set up with the Angels,” he said. “They had their whole draft go, and kind of brushed all the other guys away, which was kind of weird.”

So it wasn’t until 2021 that Warren got his first Triple-A experience — the same year he debuted in the big leagues. His results with the Salt Lake Bees were up-and-down, with an 11.1 K/9 but a 6.19 ERA in a generally hitter-friendly environment. He made 22 appearances, 21 of which were relief outings, with three games finished and one save.

This was also the first year that minor league teams started playing six-game series, with every Monday off. Warren recalled a Sunday night in late July, when the team was getting ready for a two-week road trip.

“It’s the one everyone dreads, where you’re gone from your home for two straight weeks,” he said.

Warren had just finished packing his bags. He was playing cards and having drinks with the other guys in his apartment complex. He got a call from his Triple-A manager, who asked him if he would be good to go tomorrow.

“I’m like, ‘We don’t play tomorrow,'” Warren said with a laugh.

The manager responded, “You better be good to go at Angel Stadium,” as Warren recalled.

“It kind of hit me right there,” Warren said. “I knew what he was talking about.”

He called his then-girlfriend—now his wife—then called his parents. It was past 1 a.m. for them on the East Coast. Warren’s family immediately started scrambling for flights.

“And I don’t think any of them slept the rest of the night,” he said.

Warren joined the Angels in the bullpen on July 28. He didn’t pitch, instead just taking everything in. His girlfriend, parents, sister, high school coach and more were in attendance after an abrupt and hectic traveling schedule.

“It was pretty surreal,” Warren said. “I got to sit in the ‘pen and kind of get all the jitters out and whatnot.”

On July 29, the Angels were losing 3-0 to the Athletics after the first inning. They brought José Quintana into the game in the fifth. Quintana, after striking out the side in the sixth, got into trouble in the seventh against an A’s lineup that had Mark Canha, Starling Marte and Jed Lowrie as three of the top four hitters.

The A’s made it 4-0 on an errant pickoff throw by Quintana. He departed the game with two outs and the bases still loaded.

Enter Warren.

“Which was kind of surprising,” he said.

When the phone rang, Warren recalled thinking, “All right. Debut. I don’t know if this will be me.”

Then he turned around and heard, “Warren!”

So it was up to him to inherit a veteran pitcher’s mess.

“Instantly, I felt like I could have thrown three pitches in the bullpen and been ready,” Warren said.

Facing Ramón Laureano, Warren landed a slider at the top of the zone on his first pitch. Then he jammed Laureano inside with a two-seam, which Laureano tapped out past the pitcher’s mound. First baseman Phil Gosselin fielded it. Warren did his job, beating Laureano to the first-base bag. He got the out and escaped the jam.

“I made my own out as my first big-league out, which is pretty cool,” Warren said.

It was a long walk back to the home dugout from first base. He took a second to look around.

“I was like, ‘Wow,'” he said. “‘This is the show.'”

When he got back to the dugout, he was asked if he was good to go for another inning.

“Heck yeah, I’m good to go,” Warren recalled saying.

He went on to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth. He retired Mitch Moreland and Matt Chapman, then ended the outing by striking out Sean Murphy for his first MLB punchout.

Warren’s first impression couldn’t have been much better. He ended up with a 1.77 ERA in 20 1/3 MLB innings that season. He struck out 20 and walked only five, holding hitters to a .205 batting average.

Injuries and Getting DFA’d

Some bad luck infiltrated the early part of Warren’s MLB career. A positive COVID-19 test put him on the sidelines for nearly a month in late 2021. He made the MLB team in 2022, but had a couple of short IL stints that year with a broken nose and a triceps strain. He thrived in 34 Triple-A innings in 2022, posting a 2.12 ERA, but regressed to a 5.63 ERA in 16 innings with the Angels.

Los Angeles designated Warren for assignment on Jan. 9, 2023. He cleared waivers, though, and ended up back with Salt Lake four days later. It was the first of two times Warren would be DFA’d by the Angels.

“The first time, I thought it was a little unfair,” he said. “I mean, I threw the ball well the year before. I didn’t really feel like I deserved that.”

After five outings for the Bees, Warren was called up by the Angels in late April. But he made just two appearances with the big league club before returning to the IL.

It was worse this time. He had a torn UCL and needed Tommy John surgery.

Warren underwent the surgery in May. He rehabbed in Anaheim for a couple months, then went back home. He was able to get through the process without any setbacks.

He went out to Arizona in January to get ready for spring training. The Angels DFA’d him—again—in early February, then released him the next day. After parts of six seasons with the Angels’ organization, Warren was a free agent.

“I enjoyed my time there, for sure. I met a lot of close friends. I met one of my best friends—I’ve been in his wedding; he’s been in my wedding,” Warren said. “I liked the staff over there. I’d gotten to know the staff pretty well. And I know there was some front-office changes, which can probably hurt some people, like the people that draft you that are out of there. They kind of changed their values or whatever.

“But, I mean, I can’t really talk down on them by any means. Because I made my major league debut with them.”

Warren said it was nice to switch things up last year, getting a change of scenery with the Giants. He signed with them six days after the Angels released him. He had gotten three or four minor league offers right away, but the moment he heard from his agent that the Giants were offering him a big league deal, he pounced on the opportunity.

Warren continued his rehab with Robbie Ray, a process that the Giants’ staff helped out a lot with.

“It was nice being under a vet like him,” Warren said. “We had similar characteristics and whatnot.”

After making some rehab outings in June and July, he was reactivated and optioned to Triple-A Sacramento on July 13. The rest of the season was spent between there and San Francisco, with 10 2/3 innings of two-run ball in the majors. He totaled 27 minor-league innings in 2024.

“Threw pretty well. Can’t complain about having a major surgery like that, and then coming back,” Warren said. “I pretty much had the season worth of innings, and stayed healthy.”

Meeting the Mets

The Mets finally stepped in and claimed Warren on Jan. 15 of this year, a week after Warren had been DFA’d by the Giants. He said he loved getting to play spring training in Florida for the first time, with his wife and his dog by his side. Warren had a friend who was with the Mets a few years ago and told him nothing but good things about the organization.

“Thankful I was claimed by the Mets,” Warren said. “I’ve loved every second since I’ve been here.”

So far, things have gone well for Warren in New York. As of May 19, he owns a 2.70 ERA in 16 2/3 innings for Triple-A Syracuse.

“The first few weeks were kind of tough with the weather, ’cause it’s cold,” Warren said. “Leaving Port St. Lucie, 80-plus degrees, to come to the 30s to low 40s, feels like 20s — that was kind of tough. But we’ve got a good team. We’ve got an older team with a few younger prospects. We all get along pretty well. We’re having a great time.”

Warren has found his success in another environment that’s notorious for being hitter-friendly. But it’s something he tries to block out.

“You always hear that, but you’re gonna go out there and pitch to your strengths every time,” he said. “You definitely don’t want to be thinking about that going up to the mound, or you’re probably gonna give up a homer.”

Warren briefly cracked the MLB squad in early May, serving as the 27th player for a doubleheader. He pitched a hitless inning with a strikeout.

“I was in camp with all those guys and had gotten to know them pretty well,” Warren said. “So when I got there, everyone welcomed me with open arms.”

The first batter he faced, Pedro Pagés, hit a ball in a strikingly similar spot as Laureano did four years ago in Warren’s MLB debut. This time, it was Pete Alonso to field it. His throw to first was low, but Warren dug it out while on the run. It prompted a classic “Oh, wow!” from Gary Cohen on the broadcast.

“Pete was very excited about that,” Warren said with a laugh. “I was honestly kind of surprised I got it. It bounced up and went right into my pocket.”

As the extra man for a doubleheader, getting sent back to Syracuse wasn’t a surprise. But his mission hasn’t changed.

“Being sent back down—which, I know that’s part of the business—that’s kind of what fires you up the most,” Warren said. “Everyone that goes up there feels like they deserve to be up there and stick.”

Every scoreless appearance that Warren makes for Syracuse is only strengthening his case to get back up there. But whether down in Syracuse, or pitching high-leverage MLB innings, Warren has reached the pinnacle that every young baseball player aspires to.

Less than a decade ago, he was just another young hopeful, struggling to even find collegiate opportunities. And now he’s built himself into a big leaguer.

The post Austin Warren Interview: From JUCO Shortstop to Mets Pitcher appeared first on Metsmerized Online.