Southeastern Louisiana Professional Athletes

For a Yankees bullpen that desperately needs answers heading into October, Southeastern Louisiana alum Will Warren is raising his hand at the right moment.

Warren's week was a tale of two outings — and the one that matters most came last.

The Rough Start

On Sunday, Sept. 20, Warren took the ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks and ran into serious trouble. A nightmare fifth inning proved fatal: Warren allowed four earned runs across 4.1 innings, and the Yankees fell 8-4. His ERA climbed to 4.02. Not the kind of audition tape you want to submit for a postseason roster spot.

The Redemption

Five days later, Warren looked like a completely different pitcher. Entering in relief during Game 2 of a Friday doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, Warren dominated — striking out seven batters across 3.2 innings as New York rallied to win 6-3 and split the twin bill. His ERA dropped to 3.92. More importantly, he looked every bit like a high-leverage weapon the Yankees can trust when the calendar flips.

Why It Matters

Context makes Warren's Friday performance more than a box-score footnote. The Yankees are already running thin on bullpen depth after injuries to Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Weathers, per Sports Illustrated, which puts Warren in a position to carry meaningful innings in October. New York enters the postseason with three heavily relied-upon bullpen staples and a lot of uncertainty behind them — Warren is now firmly in the conversation to be one of the answers, not one of the question marks.

The Lions product entered his final regular-season stretch working to prove he belonged. After that seven-strikeout showcase against Baltimore, it's fair to say he made his case.

The Other Lions

Warren is the only Southeastern Louisiana alumnus with a legitimate postseason role in the headlines this week. Drew Avans (Rockies) and Wade Miley (Reds) are both active in MLB but were not factors in notable storylines during this stretch.

For Hammond, Louisiana, the story is simple: one of their own is heading to the playoffs with the Yankees, and the final week of the regular season gave fans every reason to believe he'll get the ball when it counts.

Southeastern Louisiana Alumni Report | MLB | Sept. 13–19, 2026

Will Warren gave the New York Yankees exactly what they needed Monday night in Minnesota — and may have made the front office's next decision considerably harder.

The Southeastern Louisiana product turned in 5.2 innings of no-earned-run ball against the Twins, striking out six and helping set the table for a pivotal 8-3 win that fueled New York's playoff push. Aaron Judge provided the headline — his first home run since returning from the injured list — but Warren was the foundation, keeping Minnesota's lineup quiet long enough for the Yankees' offense to blow things open with a six-run eighth inning.

Warren's ERA now sits at 3.89 on the season, a respectable mark for a mid-rotation arm. The performance reinforced what he's shown throughout 2026: durability, composure, and the ability to give a contender quality innings when the calendar gets unforgiving.

The Harder Question

The win raised his profile at exactly the right moment — and complicated things simultaneously.

Per FanSided, Warren is among the Yankees players who helped clinch a playoff berth but could find themselves left off the postseason roster when crunch time arrives. New York's pitching options and roster construction decisions mean that a strong September showing earns consideration, not a guarantee. Warren's Monday start was an argument, not a verdict.

That's the reality for a player in his position: he's done enough to be in the conversation, but the Yankees will ultimately weigh matchup advantages, bullpen depth, and veteran options when finalizing their October roster. Warren's fate likely comes down to how the final weeks of the regular season play out — and whether the front office decides they want his profile in a short series.

The Rest of the Lions in the Bigs

Elsewhere among active Southeastern Louisiana alumni, Drew Avans remains on the Colorado Rockies' roster as an outfielder, though the Rockies have long since been eliminated from playoff contention. Wade Miley, the veteran left-hander with the Cincinnati Reds, continues to log innings for another non-contender.

Neither figures into a meaningful postseason narrative, leaving Warren as the sole Lion with something tangible on the line this month.

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For a program the size of Southeastern Louisiana, having an alumnus starting meaningful late-September games for the New York Yankees — and legitimately in the mix for a postseason roster — is no small thing. Warren has earned his moment. Whether he gets to enjoy October baseball is now largely out of his hands.

For a program that doesn't always see its alumni lighting up MLB scoreboards, Southeastern Louisiana is getting a prime-time audition from Will Warren — and the Yankees right-hander is not wasting it.

Warren delivered his most compelling argument for a playoff roster spot on Wednesday, September 9, striking out eight batters over six innings in New York's 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. He allowed just one earned run in the outing, and the performance was the latest in a string of strong starts that have shifted the conversation in the Bronx from if Warren belongs in October to how the Yankees plan to use him.

Making the Case, Start by Start

The timing matters. Late-season fatigue typically separates rotation depth from rotation certainty, and Warren is trending in the opposite direction. According to Yahoo Sports, at a point in the calendar when arms tend to tire, Warren is finding another gear. His five-start run of effectiveness, combined with a successful bullpen audition earlier in the week, has manager Aaron Boone increasingly reliant on the 26-year-old in whatever role the club needs.

Sports Illustrated noted that Warren is climbing the Yankees' "trust tree" — a meaningful distinction on a contending team managing its pitching depth heading into October. Heavy Sports went further, arguing that Warren's recent trend may have forced the Yankees' hand on how to deploy him in the postseason, pointing to the flexibility he's shown as both a starter and a late-inning option out of the bullpen.

That bullpen cameo, which came just days before the Rockies start, drew attention in its own right. Yahoo Sports called it a "postseason fitness preview," and the sequencing piece from the same outlet broke down how Warren's stuff plays in shorter, high-leverage bursts — an increasingly relevant data point for a Yankees staff that will need versatile arms come October.

The Hammond Product

Warren went undrafted out of Southeastern Louisiana before signing with the Yankees organization, a path that makes his current moment all the more notable. The Lions aren't exactly a perennial MLB pipeline, which makes Warren's climb through the system — and his current ERA of 4.05 with legitimate playoff buzz surrounding him — a genuine story for alumni keeping tabs on former SLU players at the game's highest level.

No other active Southeastern Louisiana alumni — outfielder Drew Avans (Rockies) or veteran lefty Wade Miley (Reds) — generated notable activity during this stretch. This week belonged entirely to Warren.

With the Yankees chasing pace in the AL East and October less than a month away, Warren's next few starts carry real stakes. He's already answered the question of whether he can handle a major-league rotation slot. The next question — whether he can be trusted with a baseball in a playoff series — appears to be one he's determined to answer before the regular season ends.

Will Warren Puts Southeastern Louisiana on the Postseason Map

It was the kind of start that changes a pitcher's October outlook.

Southeastern Louisiana alum Will Warren took the mound for the New York Yankees in arguably the most important game of their season to date — a late-August showdown with the rival Boston Red Sox — and answered the moment emphatically. The right-hander carved through Boston's lineup for seven innings, surrendering just one earned run while punching out seven batters, as New York rolled to a commanding 16-1 victory.

The performance was hailed as the best start of Warren's 2025 season, and the timing could not have been more significant. With playoff positioning on the line and the Yankees needing a reliable arm at the top of the rotation, Warren delivered exactly what the franchise required. As one piece put it simply: Will Warren is back.

The offensive fireworks — headlined by Austin Wells' two-home-run, five-RBI afternoon and Heliot Ramos' first homer as a Yankee during a nine-run eighth inning — gave Warren all the cushion he needed, but the performance stood on its own merit. ERA dropping to 4.23 after the outing, Warren quieted any questions about his ability to start a meaningful September game.

From Ace Sunday to Piggyback Friday

The story took a subtle twist just days later. Coming off his dominant Aug. 30 performance, Warren was deployed in a piggyback role for the Yankees' Friday night game — a tactical decision rather than a demotion. The Yankees' back-of-rotation arms, Warren among them, are being positioned for leverage bullpen roles in October, meaning flexibility is now part of his value to the club.

That transition showed up in the box score: Warren logged just 2.1 innings against the Padres on Saturday, Sep. 5, with his ERA ticking up slightly to 4.16. But the organizational calculus appears clear — Warren is a trusted arm for October, whether that means starting a wild-card game or covering high-leverage innings out of the 'pen.

The Lion in the Bronx

For a program like Southeastern Louisiana — a mid-major school in Hammond that rarely sees its alumni front-page a pennant race — Warren's emergence as a legitimate postseason contributor is a remarkable story. The Lions have produced a handful of MLB arms over the years, but few have been handed the ball in a game of this magnitude.

Warren's Aug. 30 gem wasn't just a strong individual outing. It was a statement that the Yankees believe in him when the margin for error shrinks. That's the kind of trust that takes a full season to earn — and Warren spent 2025 doing exactly that.

With the postseason approaching, Southeastern Louisiana fans will have every reason to tune into a Yankees October run. Their guy earned his spot in it.