Austin Warren, the Mets’ “Swiss Army Knife” on the Mound, Is Still Perfect in the Win Column

If baseball careers were plotted like subway lines, Austin Warren’s résumé would look less like the sleek 7 train and more like the F line during weekend construction—reroutes, express skips, and the occasional shuttle bus to Double‑A Mobile. And yet, as we talked at Citi Field Wednesday afternoon the freshly appointed 27th man for the twin bill, he flashed a grin that could light up the Home Run Apple.

“Yeah, I kinda snaked a win,” he shrugged, recalling the two‑and‑a‑third scoreless frames that capped the Mets’ 4‑0 blanking of Atlanta, this past week. “Pitchers don’t score runs. I just throw it over, let the defense work behind me, and hope nobody finds a gap.”

That aw‑shucks simplicity has carried Warren, now 29, from Fayetteville’s Terry Sanford High (where he also hit a robust .387, because why not?) to Wake Tech, to UNC Wilmington, to being a sixth‑round Angels pick who somehow never lost in the bigs. Seven wins, zero losses, a career 2.94 ERA, and enough roster transactions to make a tax attorney’s head spin.

At Wilmington, the right‑hander endured a 6.51 ERA junior year that would’ve made your Little League coach reach for the Pepto-Bismol. But one year later he reinvented himself—8‑0, 1.11 ERA, Colonial Athletic crown, and a draft ticket punched.

Fast‑forward through Orem, Burlington, Mobile, Mesa, Salt Lake, Tommy John surgery, and a 2024 cameo with the Giants, and you arrive at Warren’s current stop in Flushing, where the Mets claimed him off waivers this January.

What did the Mets’ brain trust see? “They tinkered with some pitch groups,*” Warren says of pitching coach Jeremy Heffner. “But mostly they just said, ‘We know what you’ve got. Go fill it up.”

Fill it up he has: 3.1 MLB innings in blue‑and‑orange, one measly hit, one walk, three strikeouts, ERA of 0.00.

Warren doesn’t pump 100 on the gun. He doesn’t spin Frisbees like Edwin Díaz. But he attacks the strike zone with the stubbornness of a un‑tipped Times Square Elmo . “I’m not a guy that walks many,*” he notes—career 2.8 BB/9 in the majors backs him up. The advanced metrics agree: no free passes, weak contact, a WHIP barely over 1.2.

That efficiency is what keeps Warren believing even after two clubs moved on. “Confidence is huge,” he says, leaning forward. “Regardless if you have your best stuff that day, you attack, put hitters in bad situations, and avoid hitter’s counts.”

The Mets, like my cholesterol numbers, have spiked and dipped this season. ” Warren puts the recent slump in perspective. “But thank God we won a lot early, so this isn’t killing us.”

Asked if it’s tempting to throw a three‑strike pitch , he grins: “*We’re all trying to fill it up every time we step on that mound. Hand the ball to the next guy and keep going.”

How rare is 7–0? To put it in perspective: if all seven wins had come as a Met, he’d have joined a very exclusive club — only 14 pitchers in franchise history have opened their careers with at least seven straight victories

The secret sauce? “Weak contact, let the defense work,” Warren repeats, a mantra worthy of cross‑stitching. And while the journeyman tag can bruise lesser egos, Warren treats every flight from Syracuse to Queens as another chance. “I’m just happy to be here. The bullpen gate opens, my heartbeat spikes a touch, but it’s still 60 feet, six inches.*”

Will Warren remain the club’s Swiss Army knife, toggling between I‑81 and Flushing Bay? The Mets bullpen is thinner than a 1990 Topps card these days, so odds are good he’ll stick—especially if he keeps that ERA in witness protection.

It should be interetsing to see how long he stays undefeated, unflappable, and unwavering in his belief that pounding the zone beats nibbling around it. In a game increasingly ruled by spin rates and sweepers, Austin Warren is trying to prove you can still carve out a niche with strikes, guts, and a grin.

From Fayetteville to Flushing, the kid keeps earning. And as long as that zeros‑across ERA holds up, he just may prove his point.

Here is my interview with Austin :