Alexander Wilson
The good news for New York Yankees fans is that it’s March 8. The bad news is that they still got their butts whooped by the Mets.
New York dropped a 10-4 Subway Series decision to the Mets at Clover Park on Sunday, and the loss itself is meaningless in the standings. What is not meaningless is what Ryan Weathers showed in two innings of work, or rather, what he could not show: anything resembling the lefty who ripped through the Nationals with a 99.8 mph fastball two weeks ago. Seven hits. Six runs. Five earned. The ERA ticked to 7.94. Opening Day is three weeks away, and for the first time this spring, there is a legitimate question about whether Weathers is actually ready for it.
Weathers Gets Exposed, and That Is Worth Saying Out Loud
Weathers is slotted fourth in a rotation already missing Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon. The Yankees did not trade four prospects to Miami to get a streaming option. They need him to be a genuine innings-eater who can bridge the gap until those arms return, and Sunday’s outing against a Mets lineup still without Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, and more was not remotely encouraging.
However, spring is for testing new pitch shapes and mechanics, so it could have been the result of an experiment.
To be fair, Weathers’ spring debut against Washington was the real deal. A 52 percent whiff rate, four pitch types generating swing-and-miss at nearly half the contact rate, a fastball averaging 98.5 mph. That version of Weathers exists. The question every rotation analyst is now asking is which version shows up more often once the games actually count for something.
Dom Hamel, a waiver pickup in January and a former top Mets pitching prospect, also had a rough afternoon in relief, giving up three runs in 2.2 innings. Hamel is a depth arm and expectations are calibrated accordingly. For Weathers, they are not, and they should not be.
Dominguez Makes His Case; Jones Keeps Rolling
The Yankees led 2-0 after Spencer Jones singled home George Lombard Jr. in the first inning and Seth Brown followed immediately with an infield single that scored Jones. That cushion was gone before the third inning was over.
Jasson Dominguez played like a man fully aware the roster clock was ticking. Down four in the fourth, he lined a single to right that scored Seth Brown and Zack Short, cutting the deficit to 4-6 and briefly making things feel interesting again. He is fighting for a spot he probably deserves, and on Sunday he made sure nobody on the coaching staff forgot it.
Jones went 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI, continuing what has been a strong and surprisingly consistent spring. Three home runs in limited looks. Between Jones and Dominguez, someone ends up in Triple-A to open the year, and whichever one it is will spend the first month watching his phone and waiting. There’s a world where both end up in Triple-A to start the season.
A seventh-inning error by Brett Martin-Grudzianek turned an ugly afternoon into a grimmer one. Three Mets runs scored in the frame, two of them unearned, expanding a 4-7 deficit into the final 4-10 margin. Errors compound bad pitching outings. That is one of the more universal truths in the sport.
What Comes Next
Weathers will get at least one more start before the roster locks, and that outing matters considerably more than this one did. One rough spring start is data. Two in a row is a conversation.
The Dominguez-Jones situation has no clean answer yet. Both played well enough Sunday to make the decision harder for Aaron Boone. The rotation question is harder still.
The Yankees fall to 10-5. That number does not matter. The rotation does.
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