Adam Warren pitched in 29 games for the Chicago Cubs to help the team win the NL Central but could only look from afar when his former teammates won the franchise’s first World Series title since 1908.
The 29-year-old right-hander was traded July 25 to the New York Yankees along with three minor leaguers for closer Aroldis Chapman, who played a key role as the Cubs came back from 3-1 Series deficit to defeat the Cleveland Indians.
When the Cubs won Game 7 in Cleveland, Warren was watching on television at his Tampa home and briefly pondered what the on-field celebration would have been like.
"I thought about it for a second, that’d be pretty cool to do," Warren said Thursday after a pre-spring training workout at the Yankees’ minor league complex. "I’m a big believer things happen for a reason, and my wife was nine months pregnant. It seemed to work out that we were back home ready to have the baby a week after the World Series."
After dealing Chapman, New York traded reliever Andrew Miller to the Indians. Warren and Miller were teammates on the Yankees in 2015.
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(Chris Sosa)
"Unique experience for me and my wife," Warren "It was such good baseball. I was rooting for Andrew Miller when he was in the game, and I was rooting for the Cubs because I knew all those guys. Having a little vested interest with the Cubs made it a little bit fun."
Warren was first traded to the Cubs in December 2015 as part of a deal that brought second Starlin Castro to New York. Warren appeared in 147 games for the Yankees from 2012-15 and made 29 relief appearances with them last year.
He went 3-2 with a 5.91 ERA for the Cubs.
"I wish I could have been there, I wish I could win a World Series, and hopefully we’ll do that with this team," said Warren, who is competing for the final two rotation spots.
Warren and Chapman, who signed with Yankees as a free agent during the offseason, will have the opportunity to return to Wrigley Field when New York plays a three-game series there from May 5-7.
Coming off the World Series win, the Cubs have only a few key roster spots to fill.
But a second consecutive lengthy postseason combined with a longer spring training will necessitate that several seasoned veterans to be brought along slower than usual. That policy worked well last spring as starters Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and John Lackey helped the rotation compile 989 regular-season innings — the most in the major leagues. The addition of Jon Jay will give manager Joe Maddon plenty of lineup and outfield combinations.
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(Mark Gonzales)
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