TORONTO — When the Yankees traded for Ryan Weathers over the offseason, they hoped his high-octane stuff would solidify the back of their rotation. Instead, the left-hander has developed a habit that is quietly becoming one of the team’s biggest headaches. He cannot keep the ball in the park, and the problem is reaching a point the Yankees can no longer brush aside.
Friday night in Toronto offered the latest, and perhaps loudest, example. Two more home runs, another early hole, and another loss have turned Weathers’s long-ball trouble into a genuine concern.
Another night undone by the homer
The pattern repeated itself almost immediately for the Yankees. Weathers surrendered two home runs in the first two innings of an 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays, putting his team in a 5-0 hole before the offense ever got going.
In the first, after a wild pitch and an Alejandro Kirk RBI double, Kazuma Okamoto launched a two-run shot into the upper deck. In the second, George Springer crushed a two-run homer following a hit batter. Weathers lasted just 4 1/3 innings and gave up a season-high six runs on six hits across 82 pitches. Tellingly, all of the damage came with two strikes and two outs, a recurring flaw in his recent outings.
The numbers paint a stark picture
Here is where the scope of the problem comes into focus for the Yankees. Weathers is not just giving up the occasional homer. He is among the most homer-prone pitchers in the entire sport.
He has now allowed 15 home runs in just 13 starts this season, a total that only two American League pitchers have exceeded. The contrast with his rotation mates is jarring. Weathers alone has served up 15 long balls, while the other Yankees starters, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Cam Schlittler, and Will Warren, have combined to allow 16 across 37 starts. One pitcher is nearly matching the output of four.
A historically bad stretch
The recent slide has been especially alarming, placing Weathers in unwanted company in franchise history. His last three starts have been a disaster across the board.
Over that span, Weathers is 0-3 while allowing 16 earned runs and seven home runs. That makes him just the second pitcher in Yankees history to post such a brutal three-game stretch, with three losses, at least 16 earned runs, and seven or more homers allowed. The only other Yankee to do it was Rodon in June and July of 2024. His ERA has climbed to 4.36 after sitting at a respectable 3.14 before the skid. Weathers did not sugarcoat the issue afterward.
“Bad pitches,” Weathers said. “Just throwing bad pitches. That’s all I got.”
The frustration was evident as he spoke about the deficits he keeps creating for the Yankees.
“I’m a competitor, I want to win,” Weathers said. “I’m sick of putting us in a hole right now the last couple outings. It’s not a good feeling.”
A workload question lurking beneath
There may be a hidden factor behind the struggles worth watching for the Yankees. Weathers is piling up innings at a rate he has never experienced in his career.
Through Friday, he has logged 72 1/3 innings this season. He had never thrown more than 94 2/3 in a big league campaign, a mark from his rookie year in 2021, and he tossed only 38 1/3 innings for Miami last season while battling injuries. He is on pace to obliterate those totals. Still, Weathers insists fatigue is not the culprit, pointing to how good he feels physically.
“The part that kind of sucks right now is I feel great,” Weathers said. “My velo is back up, so I just gotta keep plugging.”
Manager Aaron Boone has stood by his pitcher, framing the issue as a matter of location rather than diminished stuff.
“His stuff’s good,” Boone said. “Just, unfortunately, some of his mistakes have left the ballpark.”
A looming solution in the bullpen
The trouble arrives at an interesting moment for the Yankees rotation. A potential remedy may be on the horizon, even if it is not immediate.
If the rest of the rotation stays healthy, a sizable if, the Yankees could shift Weathers to the bullpen once Max Fried returns from a bone bruise. Fried was set to throw off a mound for the first time since his injury on Saturday, so the move is not imminent. But it is easy to envision Weathers’s power arsenal playing up in shorter bursts, where he could air it out for an inning rather than turn a lineup over multiple times.
For now, the Yankees need him to find the strike zone without finding the seats. Until he solves the home run riddle, Weathers has gone from a rotation solution to the Yankees’ latest pitching problem, and the clock on patience is ticking.
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