As has been the case with all of our coverage surrounding young starting pitchers for the Yankees, their importance to the club early in the year would be hard to overstate. With each of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and Clarke Schmidt on the shelf to begin the season, depth in the rotation will be vital, with several young arms being asked to step up in their absence and perhaps beyond.
Ryan Weathers, a 26-year-old lefty who was acquired in a deal this offseason, will almost certainly be one of them.
He has yet to post a full season as a starter in the majors, but as Peter outlined shortly after the trade, he has impressive raw tools, which have drawn plenty of eyes this spring. What his role will be come September or October could be anyone’s guess, but for now, he will likely be leaned on for some legitimate work to begin the year.
2025 Stats (with Marlins): 8 starts, 38.1 IP, 2-2, 3.99 ERA (111 ERA+), 4.60 FIP, 4.03 xFIP, 22.3% K%, 7.2% BB%, 1.64 HR/9, 1.28 WHIP, 0.2 fWAR
2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 37 appearances (19 starts), 118 IP, 7-7, 4.14 ERA, 4.16 FIP, 22.0% K%, 8.5% BB%, 1.18 HR/9, 1.29 WHIP, 1.2 fWAR
The much-celebrated son of 1996 Yankees World Series champion reliever David Weathers, Ryan was originally drafted with the seventh overall pick by the Padres back in 2018 out of a Tennessee high school, and quickly ascended through the minor leagues. So quickly, in fact, that he achieved the rare feat of making his MLB debut during the postseason, in the 2020 NLDS.
Weathers made 30 appearances in his first regular season stint in ‘21, in what we’ll call an unimpressive run. Eighteen of those games were starts, and his 94.2 innings of work are still the most he’s seen in any season in the big leagues, despite his troubling ERA and FIP marks well above five.
Weathers only pitched once during the 2022 season, and when given a bigger opportunity a year later (15 games, 12 starts), the lefty was even worse, posting an ERA approaching seven and walking more than 10 percent of opposing batters. He was traded mid-year to the Marlins during that season, and although it wasn’t immediate, his time in Miami would be much more fruitful.
After arriving in South Florida, Weathers did all the right things: he walked far fewer guys, and struck out more. The impacts to his surface-level production were obvious. Over the last two combined seasons, 24 starts for Weathers, he has maintained a much more manageable 3.74 ERA while striking out 22 percent of batters with walk rates well below what he was putting up in San Diego. All things considered, the Yankees acquired the lefty in an upswing, and hope to cash in on the skills that helped him be drafted early in the first round.
In just his two outings to this point in the spring, we have seen the two sides that Weathers has to offer. In his first, the 26-year-old was terrific in 3.2 scoreless innings against the Nationals, when he allowed just one hit, avoided any walks, and struck out five.
In his second, against the Mets, he allowed five earned runs on seven hits over the course of just two innings. There were good moments, but his simply gave up too much hard contact in his brief outing. Spring is obviously for tune-ups, primarily, but the less of that Weathers that the Yankees see, the better.
The talent is fairly clear, as his plus-velocity fastball can get him places, as long as the control stays in check. Although Weathers’ time in The Show has been mostly troublesome, he has been better of late, and if the Yankees are able to unlock something in his 4-5 pitch mix, it would not be surprising to see him making starts for much of the season. Until he’s able to prove that, and that he can handle a starter’s workload, he remains one of the most glaring question marks in the Yankees projected rotation, and on their roster as a whole.
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