The New York Yankees made a shrewd offseason move to bolster their pitching depth by trading for 26-year-old left-hander Ryan Weathers. A former top 10 draft pick with World Series pedigree in his blood, Weathers arrives in the Bronx with a mix of untapped potential and recent momentum. Yankees fans might not have gotten the big-name ace they dreamed of, but Weathers represents a high-upside, low-cost addition. A young southpaw whose arsenal and performance have been on the rise. In this article, we’ll dive into Weathers’ amateur pedigree and career path, evaluate his 2025 season performance with advanced metrics, break down his pitch arsenal in detail, and explore his projected role and impact in 2026.
Career Overview and his Path to Pinstripes
Ryan Weathers was destined for the big stage from the start. He is the son of former MLB reliever David Weathers, who earned a World Series ring with the 1996 Yankees. As a high school star in Loretto, Tennessee, the younger Weathers dominated amateur ranks and was drafted 7th overall by the San Diego Padres in 2018. He wasted little time rising to the spotlight. In fact, he made his MLB debut as a 20-year-old straight into the 2020 postseason, appearing on the national stage during the NLDS. That baptism by fire showcased his poise and mid-90s fastball, hinting at the mid-rotation starter ceiling scouts had projected.
Weathers’ early career with the Padres, however, was a tale of learning curves. He oscillated between the rotation and bullpen from 2021–2023, struggling to find consistency. In 43 MLB games (29 starts) with San Diego, he posted a 5.73 ERA and underwhelming peripherals. The raw talent was evident, but he had yet to put it all together. As a result of the inconsistencies, the Padres dealt Weathers to the Miami Marlins at the 2023 trade deadline as part of a multi-player swap. Miami hoped to unleash his upside as a full-time starter, and Weathers immediately moved into the Marlins’ rotation.
Injuries and adaptation defined Weathers’ Marlins tenure as he battled some fluky health issues. A strained left index finger cost him three months in 2024, then a forearm (flexor) strain in spring 2025 sidelined him six weeks, and a lat strain knocked him out for another three months in 2025. Still, when on the mound, he showed clear growth. Over two seasons in Miami, Weathers made 24 starts and went 5-8 with a 3.74 ERA (4.26 FIP) across 125 innings marking improvement from his San Diego days (he had a 5.88 ERA from 2021–23). The Marlins’ pitching development helped him add velocity and refine his secondary pitches.
This winter, the Yankees front office saw an opportunity to buy low on Weathers’ talent and add much needed starting rotation depth. In a December 13, 2026 trade, New York acquired him from Miami in exchange for four minor leaguers. It was the current front office regime’s classic type of move. Cashman continues to leverage prospect depth for a controllable young arm with upside. Weathers is under team control through 2027, and the hope is that the best is yet to come for the 26-year-old. Next, we’ll examine how he performed in 2025, his most recent action, to understand what kind of pitcher the Yankees are getting.
2025 Season Performance
Weathers’ 2025 campaign with the Marlins was truncated by injuries, but when he did pitch, he flashed the form that has the Yankees intrigued. He was limited to just 8 starts due to the aforementioned flexor and lat strains, yet he posted a respectable 2–2 record, 3.99 ERA, and 1.28 WHIP in those outings. In 38⅓ innings, he struck out 37 batters against 12 walks, showcasing a much-improved 3.1 K/BB ratio. That translated to a 22.3% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate, both the best of his career and notably solid for a starting pitcher. For context, his strikeout rate was roughly league-average (MLB avg ~22.2%) and his walk rate bettered league-average (MLB avg ~8.4%), indicating a league-average K% with above-average control.
Digging deeper into the analytics, Weathers’ underlying metrics supported his surface stats. His Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) in 2025 was 4.60, a bit higher than his ERA due in part to some home runs allowed (7 homers, about 1.65 HR/9 in his limited sample). Meanwhile, his Statcast expected ERA (xERA) was 3.96, essentially identical to his actual 3.99 ERA, suggesting he earned his results. Hitters managed a .317 wOBA against him, while his expected wOBA was slightly lower at .309, reinforcing that he wasn’t getting lucky. In short, Weathers pitched like roughly a league-average starter in 2025, which for a 25-year-old former prospect coming off injuries is encouraging.
Some other highlights from his Statcast profile: Weathers allowed a Hard Hit rate of 42.2% in 2025 (meaning about 42% of balls in play were hit 95+ mph), an area he’ll look to improve. However, he counteracted some hard contact by keeping the ball down. His ground-ball rate ranked around the 76th percentile in 2024, and in 2025 he continued to get key grounders when needed. In fact, inducing weak grounders is part of his game that suits Yankee Stadium well. It’s also worth noting that 2025 built upon a strong 2024: in his first year with Miami, Weathers went 5–6 with a 3.63 ERA and 1.18 WHIP over 86.2 innings. The back-to-back sub-4.00 ERA seasons show that his development is trending in the right direction. Between 2021-2023 he had an ERA+ of just 69, but in 2024-25 he improved to a 116 ERA+ (i.e. 16% better than league average). Yankees analytics likely took note of that two-year improvement.
In summary, the 2025 season, though abbreviated, offered a glimpse of Weathers turning the corner. He showed average-or-better performance in many key areas (ERA, K%, BB%), but the main question remains durability. Heading into 2026 he’s reportedly fully healthy after a normal offseason.
Pitch Arsenal Analysis: Five Pitches of Deception and Power
Weathers brings a diverse five-pitch arsenal to the mound, a mix that grew in Miami as he refined his craft. According to Statcast, in 2025 he relied on roughly 45% four-seam fastballs, 29% changeups, 19% sweepers (sliders), 4% sinkers, and 3-4% traditional sliders (often called a gyro slider in his case). This gives him a wide array of weapons to attack hitters from both sides. Let’s examine each pitch and its characteristics, usage, and effectiveness:
Four-Seam Fastball: This is Weathers’ primary pitch and the key to his repertoire. In 2025, he averaged 96.8 mph on his four-seamer, firmly above average (86th percentile velocity) and a jump from the 94–95 mph range he sat in with San Diego. He can reach back for 98–99 mph at times. More importantly, the fastball has excellent life up in the zone. It now carries strong “ride” (backspin-induced rise), dropping only about 13 inches on its way to the plate compared to ~15 inches of drop a couple years ago. That extra ride means hitters see a fastball that stays up longer and can blow past barrels. By upping his velocity ~2 mph and improving the fastball’s shape, Weathers turned a so-so heater into a legitimate weapon in Miami. Even if hitters managed a similar batting average off it as before, the upgraded four-seamer sets the tone for his whole arsenal now.
Changeup: Weathers’ changeup might be the most improved pitch in his toolkit. Thrown in the 87–88 mph range, it comes out of his hand looking like a fastball but arrives ~13 mph slower. It also features excellent arm-side fade and drop (he actually increased its spin and movement in 2025). The changeup tunnels off his high-riding fastball beautifully and the impact showed in the metrics. In 2023, his changeup was mediocre (only a 27.9% whiff rate and .354 xwOBA) but by 2025 it generated a 40.6% whiff rate and held batters to a .287 expected wOBA. That’s a transformation from subpar to elite for that pitch. Weathers trusts his changeup so much that he’ll even throw it to left-handed hitters, a rarity for lefty pitchers. The improved changeup, playing off the high heat, was a big reason for his jump in strikeouts.
Sweeper: The “sweeper” is a modern variation of the slider that emphasizes horizontal break, and the Yankees are quite familiar with it (they’ve been at the forefront of the sweeper revolution). Weathers throws a mid-80s sweeping slider that averaged about 16 inches of glove-side break in 2025, with elite instances up to ~18 inches of sweep. It’s a true frisbee when he gets it right. In 2023 with San Diego, this pitch was inconsistent, missing bats only ~26% of the time and hitters slugged decently off it. After refining it in Miami, the 2025 edition of his sweeper was deadly. It posted a 39.1% whiff rate and a mere .256 xwOBA against, putting it in the upper echelon of breaking balls in all of Major League Baseball. Weathers primarily uses the sweeper against left-handed batters (who have a hard time with its extreme horizontal break away from them), but he’s not afraid to back-foot it to righties on occasion. The sweeper has become his go-to putaway pitch when he’s ahead in the count, and at ~19% usage it’s a major part of his arsenal.
Sinker: In addition to the four-seam, Weathers mixes in a sinking two-seam fastball, a pitch he actually brought back and increased in usage after joining Miami. He only throws it about 4% of the time (mostly to right-handed hitters or in specific groundball situations), but it’s a nice change-of-pace off the four-seamer. The sinker comes in a bit slower (low 90s) with arm-side run and downward bite. The main purpose of this pitch is to induce quick contact on the ground. Weathers’ sinker helped him post a high ground-ball rate (around 48%) in 2024, and generally when he featured it more, he kept the ball on the ground and in the yard. The Yankees’ pitching coaches (like Matt Blake) have encouraged more sinkers from guys like Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and even trade acquisition Max Fried in recent years, so it aligns that Weathers has one in his repertoire. It’s not a pitch that gets a ton of strikeouts, but it serves a strategic purpose, such as stealing a strike on the first pitch, or getting a double-play ball when needed for example. In Yankee Stadium, where any fly ball to right can be dangerous, having a sinker to generate grounders is very useful. Weathers’ ability to keep the ball down (his overall grounder rate ranks well above league average) should play well in the Bronx.
Slider: This is essentially a second type of slider in Weathers’ arsenal, distinct from the sweeper. In 2025 he introduced a harder, tighter slider, often called a “gyro” slider that averages about 89–90 mph with minimal lateral break. Unlike the sweeper, which has tons of horizontal movement, the gyro slider has a bullet-spin that causes it to behave more like a cutter or a very small-breaking slider (only a couple inches of movement). Weathers uses this sparingly (~3–4% of pitches), but it’s a valuable new wrinkle. The gyro slider gives hitters a different shape to think about; all his other pitches either run arm-side or sweep glove-side, but this one stays mostly straight with a late downward tilt. Weathers added this pitch in 2025 after having tinkered with it in the past, and it paid dividends by further diversifying his portfolio. As he continues to refine this offering, it could become an excellent complement to the big sweeper and another tool in Weathers’ pocket to keep hitters guessing.
2026 Outlook: Role, Projections, and Impact in New York
If all goes well, Weathers can bridge the gap until Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt return from injury and stick in the rotation even after. He represents a clear upgrade over some of the fringe fifth-starter options the Yankees had prior to this trade. Manager Aaron Boone can hand Weathers the ball every fifth day with some confidence that the young lefty will keep the team in games. Steamer projections (and other forecasting systems) view Weathers as roughly a league-average starter in 2026, essentially expecting a performance in line with the blend of his 2024–25 numbers. That might equate to an ERA in the high-3s or low-4s, a solid K/BB ratio, and around 1.5–2.0 WAR over a full season of work. For a Yankees team that had a back-of-rotation void, that kind of output would be extremely valuable. And there’s reason to believe he could exceed those baseline expectations. The gains he made in velocity and swing-and-miss suggest an upward trajectory that traditional projections might not fully capture. One big factor in Weathers’ favor is the environment he’s now stepping into. The Yankees have a strong recent track record of maximizing pitchers’ strengths. Pitching coach Matt Blake and the analytics group have successfully helped pitchers find another gear. In Weathers’ case, many of the trends the Yankees value are ones he’s already embracing.
In terms of roster implications, Weathers gives the Yankees flexibility. In a best-case scenario, he pitches so well that he remains in the rotation all year, even after Cole and Rodón are back, forming a formidable group. If the rotation gets overcrowded with healthy arms (a “problem” the Yankees would love to have), Weathers could shift into a swingman or long-relief role, where his multi-pitch arsenal would play up in shorter stints. The Yankees have even floated that if everyone is miraculously healthy come playoff time, Weathers could be a lefty bullpen weapon in October. That kind of versatility – start, relieve, spot-start, etc. increases his value to the team. And remember, he’s only entering his age-26 season with three more years of club control. The Yankees are not just evaluating Weathers for 2026, but potentially as a piece of their staff through 2027 and beyond. If he blossoms in pinstripes, he could be a cost-controlled rotation fixture as veterans like Cole age.
If he can stay healthy and continue to refine his command, Weathers could take a big step forward. A left-hander with a riding fastball, a plus changeup, and two distinct swing-and-miss breaking balls is a rare and beautiful thing. Yankees fans should be excited to see what Ryan Weathers can do in 2026. This scouting report paints the picture of a young pitcher who has grown through adversity, adapted and improved his skills, and now finds himself in an organization that can help him reach new heights. The Yankees have injected some youthful exuberance into their veteran-laden rotation with this move. The upside is there for Ryan Weathers to be a impactful contributor, and if everything clicks, the Yankees may have unearthed a left-handed gem just when they needed one most. In a winter where the headlines were elsewhere, Yankees Savant readers should keep an eye on Ryan Weathers. His journey in pinstripes is (literally) just beginning, and it promises to be an intriguing one.
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