The Padres have signed left-hander Ryan Weathers, the number seven overall pick in this year’s amateur draft. AJ Cassavell of MLB.com was first to tweet news of the signing; Jim Callis of MLB.com reports that he’ll receive the full slot amount of $5,226.500 as his signing bonus.
Though the Loretto (Tennessee) High School product was a consensus first-round talent according to MLB.com, Baseball America and Fangraphs, all three of those publications ranked him outside of their top ten draft prospects; MLB.com in particular cited his lack of a “true out pitch” as reason to doubt he’d be taken so high in the draft. As such, it was a bit of a surprise to see the Padres take him with the seventh overall selection, though it’s worth noting that 2018 marks the second consecutive year that the Friars selected a high school lefty with their first round pick (they took MacKenzie Gore third overall last year).
Weathers is well-known for his overall athleticism, having led his high school to their first-ever state championship in basketball prior to pitching for them this spring. Weathers also has a fair amount of pedigree; his father is Dave Weathers, who enjoyed a major-league career spanning a remarkable 19 seasons. The younger Weathers gives a lot of credit for his development to his dad.
It’s generally believed that Weathers has a high floor for a high school selection. His fastball sat in the low nineties this past spring, clocking in at up to 95 MPH on a few occasions. Some scouts believe his big curveball might be an even better pitch than his fastball. Weathers has a good change-up as well, which he utilized often. MLB.com notes that Weathers does a good job of repeating his delivery; as such, many evaluators believe he could develop future plus command, albeit with pitches that largely grade as average or slightly above for the time being.
Shoulda drafted Liberatore…
Yep
I loved this pick, saved us enough money to snag Xavier Edwards with pick two. Only time will tell though!
The only way that is a good move is if you think Edwards is better than Liberatore.
Ehh, I don’t think that is necessarily the only case to be made.
I think you’d have to ask yourself which is better: the duo of Weathers and Edwards or Liberatore??
Nope because Weathers got a bigger signing bonus than Liberatore. Taking Liberatore wouldn’t have prevented the Padres from signing anybody.
You’re right, they just updated the article and I saw he got full bonus. Still, maybe they saw something in him that Liberatore lacked. I liked Liberatore’s pitching mix more, higher ceiling it seemed, but who knows, Weathers may surprise us.
You do realize that if you get picked later in the draft your signing bonus starts decreasing, right? If Liberatore was drafted earlier he would’ve had a bigger signing bonus.
That’s a lie. He’s not going to accept less money just cuz he got picked later. If anything it’d be the other way around.
And even if your logic were true, Liberatore would still have been cheaper than Weathers cuz he signed for below slot while Weathers signed for slot.
You do realize that if he signed for under slot at 16, he probably wouldn’t have signed for over slot at 7, right? If Liberatore was drafted earlier, he probably would’ve signed for the same amount as Weathers or slightly less. They saved absolutely no money with this move. They must’ve just liked something better about Weathers. What that is, I have no clue.
Okay dude I don’t know if you know anything about sports, but in most drafts the higher you get picked the higher signing bonus you’ll get . It doesn’t matter where you’re projected. In that case, Kyler Murray wouldn’t have had a signing bonus of $4.7 million (picked 9th overall ranked #36), Grayson Ridriguez wouldn’t have had a signing bonus of $4.3 (picked 11th overall ranked #22), Jordyn Adams wouldn’t have had a signing bonus of $4.1 (Picked 17 ranked #37). So no, it’s not my logic, its facts.
No, if Murray had been picked lower and they didn’t offer him that much money he’d have simply passed and gone back to Oklahoma for his senior season. No player is trying to sign for x amount over slot. They are simply trying to sign for x amount. Players aren’t suddenly going to accept less money because they got drafted lower and even if they did, Liberatore would have still been cheaper than Weathers.
I’m not sure if you’re talking to me or the guy before me, but I know plenty about sports, and I also know that your response has nothing to do with what I said. You’re acting like I said he would’ve taken $3.5M even if he was picked at 7 instead of 16, which isn’t even close to what I actually said.
If you need me to dumb it down for you, what I’m saying is that if he was willing to take $3.5M instead of $3.6M at pick 16 (full slot amount), he probably wouldn’t have signed for over $5.2M (full slot amount) at pick 7, unless he REALLY didn’t want to play for the Padres.
Right on the money Priggs. And if I’m a player I’d demand more money if I were drafted lower. Like if you’re drafted in the top 10 and you try to play hardball more often then not you end up like Aiken/Whitson.
I wasn’t even talking to you I was talking to Redrooster.
So if what you were saying were true then Liberatore would’ve had a higher signing bonus than projected because he was picked lower than he was ranked, but that didn’t happen
Okay so here’s what you’re saying. If you’re ranked low but ger drafter higher than expected, then you must give the team that drafter you a good discount. Out of the top 30 picks, Draft pick #9 ,11, 28 were ranked lower, but still signed a bonus $100,000 less than projected which is not a lot considering they were ranked lower than expected. Picks #13, 14, 23, 24 were also lower than they were picked, but still signed a bonus the same amount than projected and pick #17 got payed $600,000 more than projected. Now let’s do it vice versa, players who were ranked high, but got pick low. In your logic, those player can’t low ball it even if they got pick low. Pick #16 got payed $100,000 less than expected. Draft #19, 22, 26 got payed the amount that was projected even though he was ranked higher. Draft #9 got payed $600,000 less than expected
What I’m saying is whatever Liberatore got was what he was asking for all along and if the reports of him wanting top 5 pick money were true he’d be going to college.
I’m not saying they have to do anything. I’m saying if you are projected to go lower but get picked in the top 10, choosing to go to college over signing is at best greedy and at worst reckless. While if you are projected to go higher but fall, then the odds of you doing better in a future draft are higher so you’d have to be well compensated for foregoing that chance.
Agree West Coast Ryan
PS: Weathers got full slot-value. Doesn’t save the Padres any money for Edwards.
Well, at least he didn’t go overslot..Which could have kept the Padres from going over to get Edwards…??…Maybe..lol
But he was supposed to sign for significantly under slot and he didn’t.
Bottom line: Padres would have been able to sign Edwards regardless of who they took at #8.
I was just trying to help out and stick up for the guy earlier..You know, the one who was clearly wrong about pretty much everything he said..lol
Lol bro, they didn’t say what his pay was until after my comment was posted. I take back my statement from earlier, but still Weathers was a decent pickup imo from all the scouting videos and articles I saw.
Not a decent pick considering Brady Singer, Matt Liberatore and Carter Stewart were still on the board and Liberatore signed for cheaper than Weathers.
All good prospects.. only time will tell. Some draftees don’t always live up to the hype.
They already have Edwards re re
He was the last one of the top 10 rounds
They got about 40k left to go over 125k in the later rounds
Weathers was the last one
Wtf is Preller doing!? Takes Weathers over the much better Liberatore because he’ll supposedly be cheaper and yet Weathers gets a bigger signing bonus!?
I really couldn’t tell you..I mean, you do have to consider Liberator was ultimately selected by the Rays with the 16th pick, which carried roughly a 3.6 mil slot bonus…Although, even with that being said, Liberatore didn’t even sign for the full amount, I don’t believe. I’m pretty sure he only signed for 3.5 mil.
So, it looks like by drafting Liberatore instead of Weathers, not only could the Padres possibly saved a few thousand dollars, they would have also gotten the pitcher with a much higher ceiling..
I thought Liberatore, was just about a sure fire top 8 pick, falling at the LATEST to the Braves, and I can’t believe the Rays ended up getting him with what could be the steal of the 1st round..
Regardless though, it’ll be interesting to see how the careers of Weathers, the Braves’ high school pitcher Carter Stewart, and the Rays’ Liberatore all turn out..Along with the other high school pitchers from the first round of the 2018 draft..
I’m putting my money on Carter Stewart having the best career, but he hasn’t even signed yet, sooo…Yeah, he needs to sign aoon, so I can finally calm down lol…
Anyways, Carter was the Braves’ consensus #1 prospect in the 2018 draft..Or at least that is what they’ve said, so take that for what it is worth..lol
Would have preferred Stewart over Weathers as well.
The only positives I see in Weathers are his pedigree, his mature mound presence, and the fact he’s a high school kid that already has control and command of three to four pitches..
Weathers’ change-up, coupled with his fastball command, could allow his “stuff” to play up as he climbs the MiL ranks..
I mean, I’m obviously not a professional scout, nor did I sleep anywhere that makes it okay for me to pretend to be one..lol..So, really only time will tell the tale, but Weathers could suprise some folks..
For a prospect that doesn’t have excellent stuff, or an electric arm; in order to be successful, he better have a mature approach, mix his pitches well, and have some excellent command..Which, again, those are all boxes that Weathers checks off..
Alot of “prospect analysts” said Mike Soroka wouldn’t be as good as his draft peers for alot of the same reasons..Soroka was seen as a high floor, high school pitcher coming from Canada, but how high is his ceiling now?? …
And, as a Braves’ fan, Soroka is also now my favorite pitcher in their rotation..Reading his interviews are AWESOME!! You would never guess he was a 19 year old at AA, when he gave some of those interviews. If I had to guess, I would have thought his answers were more like that of a 10 year veteran pitcher..
Soroka has climbed the ladder successfully not by throwing 97 MPH, with a huge curve..He’s done it by mixing speeds on his pitches, throwing 92, and knowing when to rare back to hit 95, knowing when to throw his curve harder, with more break, and knowing when to take advantage of aggressive opponents ..He has done it by being unpredictable in hitter’s counts, by studying film, by commanding his pitches well, and the main overall reason he has been so successful is just his mental makeup and incredible maturity on and off the mound. He’s a very cerebral pitcher, and that’s a trait that CANNOT be overlooked..
Now, guys like Soroka don’t come along very often, especially not having that kind of mindset and approach at the age of 20, but maybe Weathers is another cerebral pitcher, and maybe that’ll be his key to future success..??
Somehow, I get the feeling that Weathers won’t be another Mike Soroka situation. Obviously no one can say for sure tho.
I may be mistaken, but didn’t Liberatore check off those boxes too..?
That would be awesome, but I think this guy has a better chance of becoming Wade Leblanc 2.0.
LeBlanc doesn’t have a 95 mph fastball. Apparently Weathers does
“The better pitcher”?
You guys who think you already know who will be the better Major League pitcher 4 years from now crack me up.
Bashing Preller because you are “guessing” one kid will be better than another.
You have no idea nor does anyone else…….
Buddy it’s not just us. All the relevant draft publications had Liberatore and Stewart ahead of Weathers.
Liberatore was drafter 16th overall for a reason. I trust the teams professional scouts that actually go out there and scout the players for months and even get to meet up with them instead of someone a bunch of baseball writers who have never seen any of the prospects play in person.
Don’t you know that us fans who have probably never watched 90% of the first rounders know more than the professional scouts?
Those professional scouts you are referring to also liked Liberatore better.
Oh yes that’s why he was drafter 16th overall, because the scouts I’m referring to loved him so much they didn’t want to draft him #4 like he was projected to be
You people need to remember rarely do the best talents go in order of their talent. Mlb draft because of the slotting system makes it nearly impossible to predict. High school players in particular have tons of leverage and can kinda pick where they want to go. Nearly every team who picks in the first round pretty much knows they can absolutely sign the guy otherwise they don’t take him. If his agent plays hardball with a team and doesn’t give them indication he will sign he probably has insurances with another team like the rays or Royals who had all kinds of money to spend that he will get picked later and still get 1st round money.
A lot of the best HS kids have dropped in the past to avoid getting drafted by certain teams. Kershaw is a prime example.
Nice try bro but if what you are saying was the case with Liberatore he would have signed for above slot. Far above slot for that matter.
How do you think these baseball writers come up with these reports? They use their years of industry experience and connections to talk to numerous scouts and front office personnel to form a consensus opinion of these players. As an example, if scouts from 25 different teams like Liberatore better than Weathers, you’ll see him ranked higher. Of course, in practice only one team needs to like Weathers better than Liberatore to draft him higher and with baseball’s draft talent is never the only consideration to when a player will be chosen.
Today none of us know what will become of these players, but the industry consensus was that Weathers wasn’t the 7th best player in this draft. Many speculated that the Padres felt comfortable they could get him to sign at a discount there which would have allowed them to go after some other talented players who fell in later rounds. The Padres ended up punting their 8-10 round picks to save money, but still have 10 unsigned draftees from rounds 12-20 that may end up going unsigned without any savings from Weathers. We’ll all know for sure in a few days how much Weathers signing for full slot ended up affecting the Padres total draft.
This is the second time in three years that Preller has passed on the best player available to take a guy who would supposedly sign for cheaper and then gave his guy a bigger signing bonus than the guy he passed on got.
Maybe, just maybe, they thought that Weathers was the better prospect and they were ok with signing him at slot value . Maybe their scouts are actually better than you and know what the heck they are looking at. Who said they were going to sign him for under slot? Eric Longerhagenflagensmagen? Who give AF? We signed our guy and now we have a gaggle of good LH pitching prospects.
Nice try bro but not a single scout had this guy ahead of Liberatore. And just about every report also said that Weathers would be a cheap sign and he wasn’t.
Yeah, reports…not scouts.
Also, Libertore doesnt come from a MLB household. Weathers has been in ML clubhouses. It helps.
So basically you are saying g that Preller is right and all those other scouts were wrong.
What scout? Name one? Fangraph fools are not scouts. They run an f’ing opinionated website. Preller has a better track record than them in the scouting dept
All of them. Literally no one had Weathers ahead of Stewart, Singer or Liberatore.
The point is you can argue “today” all you want.
Quote this scout or that.
But you can’t say it was a mistake “now”.
Many teams passed on Liberatore…..not just SD.
Why are you singling out Preller?
What about the other 10 GM’s who passed on him?
Also…..the Padres have arguably the best Farm system in baseball.
That tells us Preller knows what he’s doing.
It also tells us that maybe they wanted Weathers instead of Liberatore for reasons we aren’t privy too.
Do you know anything “personally” about Liberatores’ make up?
Maybe in talking to friends,coaches etc something came up that made so many teams pass on him?
Who knows……but what I do know is “we” don’t know.
So if I understand correctly, you are saying that Preller was right and everyone else was wrong?
Preller is genius can’t you tell by his trades and free agent signings
some here seem to think Liberatore is a slam dunk all star. who really knows? you think Preller and his staff didn’t spend months going over all the possibilities? at any rate, it’s another five years before we know how these choices by all the teams pan out,.
Hogwash, since when is the MLBTR comment section supposed to be filled with reason, patience, and an idea that makes perfect sense..
Please take your perspective and understanding elsewhere..TROLL!!
No one said Liberatore is a slam dunk All Star Einstein. But neither is Weathers.
Correct, and even though neither of us are professional scouts…Last I checked the professional scouts ranked both Liberatore and Stewart higher than Weathers..
No one is making claims of anyone being an all-star, we are just saying which guy we’d rather have..
Being such a boringly lame putz on a sports blog does not make you sound more intelligent..
To everyone who’s complaining on why the Padres didn’t pick Liberatore, there must be a good reason. The kid was drafter 16th overall when he was ranked #4, so obviously there were 15 other teams with professional scouts that saw somebody else stand out more than him. Why was Brady Singer drafted 18th overall when he was projected at #2? Why was Kyler Murray drafter 9th overall when he was ranked #36? I still can’t understand why teams passed on those players, but many of them did, so there must be a good reason.
I can’t help you with Liberatore or Singer, but Murray was ranked #36 because of sign-ability questions (football). If football wasn’t in the picture, he would’ve been ranked much, much higher.
No one said Liberatore is better, but as a kid coming out of high school he was always projected to have one of the highest ceilings, and since the pads are amidst a rebuild, it would have made a bit more sense to take a left hander with more potential. Weathers could have been a safer bet, but based on scouts Liberatore had much more potential. He was later drafted by the Rays, another team amidst a rebuild who could have gotten away with taking a high risk/reward type of guy.
Yes exactly. I was surprised the Padres went with Weathers when they could have picked other pitchers with higher ceilings, especially because of the fact that they are still rebuilding and Preller loves high-ceiling guys. It would have made more sense if Weathers signed underslot, but that didn’t happen. Sure the guy has a great pedigree, but he doesn’t even have a true “out” pitch. He could prove us all wrong, but there’s a chance he might end up becoming a bullpen piece or Wade Leblanc 2.0. Overall, I liked the Edwards pick a lot more than this pick.
Don’t think questioning Preller’s prospect knowledge is a good idea. Dudes been pretty good at the whole farm system thing for a while now
Trea Turner says hi
Fernando Tatis Jr says hi too
How many Major League PA’s does he have?
None, because he’s still 19. You’re forgetting the Padres gave up James Shields (trash) for a number the #4 prospect in all of baseball.
And gave up a top 10 prospect in baseball (and a shortstop to boot) for more trash (Wil Myers)
You also seem to care a lot of where prospects are ranked. So let’s put it this way, the Padres gave up the top #95 prospect in all of baseball and pitching prospect that didn’t even make it into the Padres top 20 in 2014 for the 2013 AL rookie of the year. It sounds really good on paper, but that just shows you how unpredictable baseball is. Even though Turner was ranked 95 in 2014 he’s playing as if he was ranked in the top 20s and even though Myers was rookie of the year he’s playing like your average outfielder that was drafted in the second round
Lol I like how you give hindsight scouting to Tatis but not Turner.
The White Sox giving up an unknown Dominican League player and a failed pitching prospect for an innings eater who had a 3.06 ERA prior to his last start with the Padres also sounded good on paper.
You do realize that the Padres traded Truner when he was a #95 prospect, right?
Uh yeah. Do you realize that Tatis was a complete unknown who hadn’t even made his stateside debut and appeared on ZERO top 100 prospect lists when the White Sox traded him?
Yeah, but according to you, ranking is everything, so in that case, the Wil Myers trade seemed like a win for the Padres and the James Shields trade would have been a complete bust. Padres get rookie of the year for top #95 and unknown prospect vs James Shields and cash considerations for unknown prospect
But you gave hindsight scouting to Tatis and said “but he was only ranked #95 at the time” with Turner. You have to give hindsight scouting to both or neither. Not just one.
Tatis hasn’t played a game yet
Definitely a riskier signing now that I see the dollar amount. I take back my earlier comments forsure, but just got to trust the process as a fan of the game..
Yeah they updated the article and posted the dollar amount. Seems like a riskier pick now, but just got to sit back, wait and see.
Maybe that Jimmertree guy can come in and give us his personal breakdown of Weathers compared to his draft peers. That way we can have a “real scout’s” take on the issue.
Scouts eyes… lol
People acting like Preller and maybe more importantly Logan White shouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt crack me up.
L White especially seems to have a pedigree of sorts when draft left handed pitchers out of high school.
How can everyone miss Preller’s master plan?
Its clear he wants to sport a 5 man lefty rotation! Gore, Lucchesi, Weathers, Morejon, Lauer/Allen.
Why you gotta leave out Margevicius? That’s just mean….
If he does as well as his dad, it was a good choice.
If my aunt had balls…
The whole “he’s a great athlete, he won a basketball state championship” is watered significantly when you realize Tennessee isn’t a basketball hot bed.
I mean, isn’t it possible that Liberatore and his reps, in meetings with teams pre-draft, told the Padres not to draft him or he’d just go to college; maybe for some reason he doesn’t want to play for SD and some of the other teams who passed on him. He has all the leverage obviously as a HS senior. Players tell teams not to draft them all the time. And as for Weathers, once he was drafted in that slot he probably demanded slot money or he wouldn’t sign either. Just a theory.
If that was it I’m pretty sure the Rays would have been one of the teams he didn’t want to play for.
And as for Weathers, they passed on better players because “He would sign for cheap” and that didn’t even end up being truem
Why would he sign for below-slot? He had all the leverage. Maybe Liberatore just didn’t want to go to San Diego for whatever reason. Maybe didn’t want to get lost in the wave of prospects or maybe he really likes Tampa’s system or whatever. Lots of variables with HS seniors. They get to basically pick their landing spot.
Or maybe the Padres and other teams saw something they didn’t like in Liberatore’s workout. That could be why he dropped.
“Why would he sign for below-slot? He had all the leverage.”
He wouldn’t. But it was my impression that he was going to and that was why they took him because he clearly wasn’t the best player available.
“Maybe Liberatore just didn’t want to go to San Diego for whatever reason.”
Cuz apparently the Rays are so much better?