Will Warren’s first reaction to Yankees-Padres trade drama before deadline? ‘No way’

NEW YORK — New York Yankees starting pitcher Will Warren’s phone buzzed. It was late at night on Aug. 2, and he was in his seat on the team’s charter flight from Chicago to New York City.

The text message was from his wife. When he opened it, he saw a screenshot of a report — later debunked — that claimed he was part of a trade the San Diego Padres had rejected from the Yankees leading up to the deadline, which was the next night.

The supposed deal? It was Warren heading to San Diego for lefty reliever Adrian Morejon. The report quickly went viral.

Lending it possible legitimacy: The Yankees seemed to need a late-inning arm such as Morejon (2.89 ERA, 54 games), who as an impending free agent might have been someone San Diego would trade.

But Warren was glad the Padres had apparently said no.

“Phew,” Warren texted back to his wife. “Close call.”

Warren did not want to leave the Yankees, who drafted him in 2021 and helped him develop into a league-average (and still improving) starting pitcher. In 22 starts this season, he has a 4.18 ERA and an 8-6 record.

But something tugged at Warren at the time.

“Definitely,” he told The Athletic on Sunday, “when you read it, I was like, no way. They didn’t think I was good enough? That’s how I took it at first.”

Less than 12 hours later, however, The Athletic reported, citing a team source, that the trade proposal had never happened. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations.

Then general manager Brian Cashman said the purported Warren-for-Morejon proposal “wasn’t true” during a post-deadline conference call with reporters last Monday night.

“There was a lot of noise on whatever that was,” Cashman said.

Warren remembered the reactions of some of his teammates, who were glad he stayed. He said he walked up to fellow starter Cam Schlittler and jokingly said, “Whoa, I was almost gone there.”

Warren said the whole ordeal didn’t bother him.

“Since my first season,” he said, “I think I’ve been tossed in these trade rumors like every single season. At this point, it’s like, I can’t do anything about it. If it happens, it happens.”

Warren said he did not reach out to any team officials after the dust settled.

“I wasn’t worried about it,” he said.

He added that, prior to this year’s deadline, he had doubted he would be traded.

“It was more like,” he said, “What are we going to do? Who are we getting? Who’s going away?”

The 27-year-old had been through something similar before — and with the Padres.

During the 2023 Winter Meetings, there were rumors the Padres wanted Warren as part of a trade package for star outfielder Juan Soto. It actually got to the point, Warren said, that his agent told him he was “probably” going to be in the deal.

But, instead, Warren was left out of the blockbuster trade. The Yankees ended up landing Soto and center fielder Trent Grisham for pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez, Drew Thorpe and catcher Kyle Higashioka.

Warren wants to stay with the Yankees as long as he can.

“This is the only thing I know,” he said. “It’s really, really special because, like, (Austin) Wells, Cam. Clarke (Schmidt). George (Lombard Jr.). Ben (Rice). Spencer (Jones). We all came up with the Yankees. Even if we didn’t play multiple years with each other, we were in the farm system together. So we’re close. And the team we have is super tight-knit. We jell together. I think we all have extra belief in one another.”

So, naturally …

“I was super pumped when I wasn’t leaving,” Warren said.