Will Warren just answered important question for Yankees (but not in a good way)

Heading into Sunday's game, fans were hoping they'd get another somewhat productive outing from Will Warren, especially with the way his starts have transpired this year. He seems to put together something permissible every other time he takes the mound, so after allowing four runs over 3 1/3 innings against the Baltimore Orioles, he was due.

But that was far from the case against the Tampa Bay Rays in the rain-delayed series finale. Warren, who badly needed to be efficient with a tired Yankees bullpen thanks to Saturday's game that was upended due to another Clarke Schmidt injury, stumbled early and often.

New York used five pitchers in Saturday's rough 3-2 loss, and three of them went at least 1 2/3 innings. Aaron Boone didn't exactly have a fleet at his disposal should the team be in a tight spot in this rubber match, but that ended up not being a concern.

By the fourth inning they were down 5-0 because Warren couldn't handle the bottom of the Rays' lineup. Although the defense didn't help him (two errors, resulting in two unearned runs), that just made Warren's already underwhelming showing even worse.

Once again, the right-hander was unable to put away hitters. The Rays recorded seven hits, five of which came with two strikes. Warren ended up throwing 102 pitches (62 strikes) over just 4 2/3 innings. Though he didn't get chased early and ended up striking eight, he allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits and three walks.

Will Warren emphasizing Yankees need to start being active on trade market

Whether Warren is a good pitcher or not (he's still 25 years old with only 13 games under his belt), he's showing the Yankees, at this very moment, that he cannot be trusted as the team weathers the current injury storm. In Warren's defense, he was never supposed to be in the starting rotation to begin the year, but that changed fast once spring training further decimated the roster. He's going to need the runway to go through some growing pains.

On the other hand, the Yankees can't keep trotting him (and Carlos Carrasco) out there in what's proving to be worse than a coin flip in their favor. Plus, Schmidt and Marcus Stroman aren't seeing their situations improve, so the Yankees are stuck with this until further notice.

But all that means is Brian Cashman will need to begin exploring the trade market a bit early to get creative. This isn't a surprise, but it should now be expedited. The best-case scenario with Warren was that he'd be serviceable for April - June, but he's barely been that, so it's looking more and more like he should be reserved for long relief in 2025.

The Yankees don't need to make any premature blockbuster deals, but they definitely need some newer arms in the building to keep moving the line to July. We've now gotten a full month of a sample size here, so it's not like it's a knee-jerk reaction. Just like with Devin Williams, the Yankees need to act fast here, because they can't keep sacrificing games in this manner when they've had a good chance to pull away from the pack early.