Luke Weaver has been one of the best Yankees’ best low-cost pickups in recent memory. Originally landing in the Bronx via a Sept. 2023 waiver claim, Weaver pitched well in three starts for the Yankees down the stretch that year and made a good enough impression that the Yanks re-signed him to a major league deal in January after he’d become a free agent. He moved to the bullpen in 2024 and made his $2MM base salary look like a raucous bargain. The Yankees made the no-brainer call to pick up a $2.5MM option on Weaver for the 2025 season, and while he hasn’t been as good as he was in ’24, he’s still been a key member of the relief corps.
Weaver is slated to return to free agency for a second time this offseason, and he’ll do so with much higher stock than last time around. The 32-year-old figures to be one of the top relievers on the market … unless he follows the same path as former teammate Clay Holmes and signs with an eye toward moving back into a rotation. The extent to which teams around the league will have interest in that scenario remains to be seen, but when asked about the possibility, Weaver himself told Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post on their podcast that he’s open to the idea:
“For so long, being a starting pitcher — you don’t expect to be a reliever. Being a starting pitcher, honestly, has got to be the best job in the big leagues — especially when it’s going well. But, I just found this niche. I just found this ability to do something a little bit different and use my background of starting to channel it into how I pitch now.
…The door is open. I am never just going to say, ’Absolutely not.’ When the time comes, let’s talk about it. Clay has done a great job this year in that transition. I don’t know what people are saying, but I’ve watched from afar, and I’m proud of him. That’s a really cool thing that he’s done. The transition, I don’t think people truly understand — that’s crazy. To do it as consistent as he has, I commend him. It’s cool to see that it’s possible, too. We see it happening from time to time now. Teams are being a little more strategic. So, yes, I’m very much open to it, but I also am not just like, ’Yeah I want to go do that,’ or, ’Yeah I want to go do this.’ Let’s sit at the table. Let’s have a conversation and see what that looks like and what best [puts me in position] to be the most successful. I would like to have those options if they are there.”
Weaver began his career as a starter and enjoyed plenty of early success. The former Florida State standout was the No. 27 overall pick by the Cardinals in 2014 and was in the big leagues just two years later. His debut effort was rocky, but in 2017, Weaver made 10 starts (and three relief appearances) for the Cardinals in a season that saw him pitch 60 1/3 innings of 3.88 ERA ball. He pitched 136 1/3 innings in 2018 and scuffled a bit, logging a 4.95 ERA, before coheadlining (alongside Carson Kelly) the Diamondbacks’ return for Paul Goldschmidt, who was traded to St. Louis one year ahead of his first crack at free agency.
In 2019, Weaver looked to be in a full-fledged breakout with Arizona. He started a dozen games and pitched 64 1/3 innings with a 2.94 earned run average, a 26.5% strikeout rate and a 5.4% walk rate. A flexor strain wiped out nearly two-thirds of his season, however, and when Weaver returned during the shortened 2020 season, the right-hander struggled badly. Weaver made a full slate of 12 starts and notched solid strikeout and walk rates, but he was also immensely homer-prone (1.73 HR/9) and limped to a 6.58 ERA in just 52 innings.
Shoulder and elbow injuries plagued Weaver each season from 2021-23. He posted a combined 5.80 ERA in 225 innings between four teams across those three seasons but, as previously noted, impressed the Yankees down the stretch. Heyman noted within the podcast that Weaver’s opportunities that offseason included a major league deal to return to the Yankees, a series of minor league deals with spring training invitations, or some options overseas. He chose to sign with the Yankees on that one-year contract, and he’s been reborn in the Bronx.
Through 145 1/3 innings out of Aaron Boone’s bullpen, Weaver has pitched to a 3.28 ERA with a 29.6% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate, a 32.2% ground-ball rate and 1.24 HR/9. The 93.8 mph he averaged on his four-seamer as a starting pitcher earlier in his career has spiked to 95.4 mph in short relief. He’s mostly scrapped his former mid-80s slider in favor of a harder, firmer cutter in the low 90s and worked off a four-seam/changeup/cutter mix that’s served him quite well.
That three-pitch mix, at least on the surface, would seemingly give Weaver a decent chance to transition back to rotation work. He’s the same age now that Holmes was when he reached free agency last winter. On the other hand, Holmes’ 6’5″, 245-pound frame is more in line with the prototypical starting pitcher than Weaver’s more slight, 6’2″, 180-pound frame. That’s not to say that Weaver can’t make a similar transition, but that leaner build is less common among starting pitchers, who tend to skew a bit on the larger side (which is only natural, given the physical demands of a starter’s workload).
Regardless, Weaver could well draw some interest as an under-the-radar rotation candidate this winter. Many of the expected top names in free agency have struggled this year, whether that’s with injuries or just lesser results than one might’ve expected on Opening Day. Dylan Cease, Michael King, Zac Gallen, Zach Eflin, Nestor Cortes, Walker Buehler and Dustin May are just some of the many pitchers whose platform year for free agency hasn’t gone as hoped. Weaver could present an intriguing alternative, particularly since he’s demonstrated that he can have success in a short relief role if stretching him back out doesn’t go according to plan.
Weaver made clear that he’s very interested in re-signing with the Yankees as well, but he’ll see what all of his opportunities look like in free agency this winter. His openness to stretching back out should lead to an even wider field of teams who are potentially interested and give him even more possibilities to consider. For now, the righty’s focus is understandably on the present and on pushing as deep into the postseason as possible, but he’ll be a far more fascinating free agent to track in the winter of 2025-26 than in 2023-24.
Fans — Yankees fans in particular — will want to check out the full interview, during which Weaver discusses (among many other topics) the rigors of trying to be available as often as possible, some pivotal differences in a pitcher’s mindset depending on the situations they’re facing, and his thoughts on the AL MVP race between two of his close friends: Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh.
