Brian Cashman just tossed a Hail Mary from the Marlins’ facility all the way to the Bronx, and your opinion on it probably depends on how much you trust Matt Blake’s voodoo. Earlier this month, the Yankees officially pulled the trigger on a trade for Ryan Weathers, sending four prospects to Miami for a guy who has spent as much time on the trainer’s table as he has on the rubber.
It is a classic Yankees move. They see a high-pedigree arm with a 97-mph heater and figure they can fix the engine while the car is speeding down the Major Deuce.
The timing here is not just opportunistic; it is desperate. With Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt both recovering from surgery and Carlos Rodón’s elbow currently a collection of question marks, the April rotation looks like a ghost town. Cole is not walking through that door until May at the earliest. Rodón might be back by late April if his recovery from shaving down those bone spurs holds up, but relying on that is like betting your mortgage on a coin flip.
Weathers isn’t just a luxury depth piece. He is a guy who needs to eat meaningful innings before the pinstripes are buried in the standings by Memorial Day.
Unlocking the Inner Ace
Matt Blake sounded like a guy who just found a vintage Porsche in a barn during his recent chat on Yankees Hot Stove. “This is an exciting arm. It’s a kid whom I’ve been following since high school, when we were scouting him in the Amateur Draft,” Blake said, sounding more like a proud talent scout than a coach.
He has been tracking Weathers since the Padres took him seventh overall in 2018, which tells you everything you need to know about why this trade happened. The talent is undeniable, even if the 3.99 ERA in a shortened 2025 campaign does not scream “stopper” just yet.
“He’s done a nice job of growing into a major league version of himself,” Blake added, acknowledging that the lefty finally looks like he belongs. Last year, Weathers was limited to under 40 innings because of flexor and lat strains. Those are scary words for any pitcher, let alone a southpaw the Yankees need to lean on immediately.
“The biggest thing is just keeping him on the field. We have to do a good job of having a nice onramp for him this spring and keeping him healthy, but an electric arm with a nice arsenal — there’s definitely a ceiling for him he hasn’t touched yet,” Blake noted.
The Science of the Sink
The plan to fix him is already in motion, and it starts with a pitch usage change. Per SNY, Blake said the Yanks have talked to the southpaw “about leaning on his two-seam more to help open the zone for his four-seam fastball and sweeper.”
Despite that sinker looking like a weapon in limited looks, he only threw it five percent of the time last season. If Blake can get him to tunnel that two-seamer with his 97-mph four-seamer and that nasty sweeper, the ceiling Blake keeps mentioning might actually be real. It is about opening the zone, not just throwing past guys who have already timed up the straight gas.
Weathers himself seems to be fully aware of the golden ticket he just handed. “I’m looking forward to learning,” Weathers said during his intro presser. “You look at the rotation, you look at the bullpen guys, there’s no excuse for me not to pick their brains and learn from some of the best.”
That humble approach is fine, but the Yankees need him to be a bulldog, not a student. He is under control through 2028, so this isn’t just a rental for the injury crisis. If he can stay on the mound and trust the new arsenal, he goes from a desperation trade to a long-term fixture.
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