With a mere eight days remaining before the defending American League champion New York Yankees begin their quest for World Series flag No. 28 by hosting the Milwaukee Brewers to open the 2025 season, it has been no secret that the Bronx Bombers simply are not in the kind of shape they were in last season. A plague of injuries has befallen the iconic club, especially the Yankees pitching staff.
With ace starter and 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole out for the season thanks to Tommy John surgery and last year’s Rookie of the Year, the projected third starter in the rotation, Luis Gil nursing a lat strain with no date for return, Yankees pitchers have dealt with aches and pains â in degrees ranging from merely concerning to catastrophic â all spring.
With two middle relievers, Ian Hamilton and Mark Leiter Jr., already battling to return from injury without missing significant time in the regular season, on Wednesday new concerns cropped up about last season’s surprising bullpen hero whose sudden emergence as a lights-out closer played an important part in getting the Yankees to the AL East pennant and their first World Series in 15 years.
Weaver’s Fastball Fades Away and No One Knows Why
Luke Weaver, a 2014 first round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals, 27th overall, had spent most of his career as journeyman middle reliever, bouncing among six different teams since his debut in 2016 â and gaining the dubious distinction of leading the National League in losses in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
In that 60-game season, Weaver’s team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, lost 35 games and the righty reliever was tagged as the losing pitcher in nine of them. That’s more than 25 percent of his team’s losses, a stat made all the more stunning by the fact that Weaver appeared in only 12 games in that strange season.
Weaver started 2023 with the Cincinnati Reds, who released him in August. The Seattle Mariners then signed him on August 22, but placed him on the waiver wire where the Yankees grabbed him in September.
He stuck with New York into 2024 â and then something remarkable happened. His average fastball velocity jumped from 94 mph to 95.7 and his strikeout rate went up with it, from 19.4 percent to a dominant 31.1. Late in the season, Weaver’s fastball topped out â according to Fangraphs data â at 99.4 mph.
Velocity Drop ‘Something to Watch’
But then Weaver showed up for spring training this season and his overpowering fastball was gone. During this spring, his velocity has dropped into the 92 to 93 mph range. So far, the Yankees have offered no explanation for the cratering of Weaver’s fastball, but pitching coach Matt Blake at least outwardly appeared unworried, according to a report by Pinstripe Nation.
âIf this lasts into the regular season, then itâs something to watch,â Blake said, as quoted by the site. âBut Weaver isnât the kind of pitcher who needs to throw 98 to be effective.â
Maybe not. But Bleeding Yankee Blue head writer Robert Casey was more concerned.
“After an offseason filled with high hopes, a spring training filled with injury nightmares is the last thing this team can afford,” Casey wrote on Wednesday. “If Weaver doesnât get that velocity back, he risks becoming just another middle-of-the-road arm instead of the shutdown weapon the Yankees relied on last year. So, for now, we wait. And we hope.”
Weaver â who is due to be paid $2.5 million by the Yankees in 2025 â got stronger as the season went on last year, registering his most dominant performance in the months of September and early October when he struck out 25 in just 12 innings with a standout 1.50 ERA.
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