The Yankees announced Monday that right-hander Ryan Weber rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency. That indicates that Weber, who was designated for assignment last week, first went unclaimed on outright waivers. Because he’s been outrighted previously in his career, Weber had the right to reject the assignment.
New York was the sixth stop for the well-traveled Weber, a 31-year-old journeyman who’s seen at least brief Major League time in every season dating back to 2015. Though he’s never appeared in more than 18 games or topped 43 innings in a single Major League season, Weber has slowly racked up 170 2/3 innings at the game’s top level. He made just one appearance for the Yankees after being selected to their Major League roster, during which he held the Rays to one run on two hits with no walks and a strikeout in 3 2/3 frames. A solo homer to catcher Francisco Mejia proved to be his lone blemish that day.
That solid outing aside, Weber owns a career 5.22 ERA in the big leagues, generally relying on a big 53.2% grounder rate and a strong 5.4% walk rate to help offset his lack of velocity (89.1 mph average sinker) and lack of missed bats (14.8% strikeout rate, 5.9% swinging-strike rate). Weber has had some decent stretches in the big leagues and has been far more effective as a reliever (4.49 ERA in 100 1/3 innings) than as a starter (6.27 ERA in 70 1/3 frames).
Despite never finding much consistent success in the Majors, Weber has had plenty of just that down in Triple-A. The former 22nd-rounder (Braves, 2009) has appeared in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns with a 3.14 ERA, an 18% strikeout rate and a tiny 4.4% walk rate in 485 innings. That includes a sharp showing with the same Scranton affiliate to which he just refused an outright assignment; in 21 1/3 innings with the RailRiders this year, Weber posted a 2.95 ERA with a 15-to-1 K/BB ratio and a 47.1% ground-ball rate.
Thank you for your service, Ryan.
This guy is tailor-made for Korea or Japan. He’d get paid much better over there and have similar results to what he’s put up in AAA. Maybe he doesn’t want to leave the U.S.? A RHP who only throws 89mph has a very difficult time sticking in the majors these days. Kyle Hendricks is one of the rare exceptions who has been able to stick around with a sub-90 fastball.
He’s a AAAA guy so far.
It probably makes sense for him to look elsewhere to better position his chances since the Yankees have so much depth.
Hopefully, he can get back to the majors with another team.
Not impossible he returns to the Yankees after his agent explores the market. It’s telling he wasn’t claimed, but that doesn’t mean teams won’t have an interest if he’ll take a minor league deal. He can select an org where he believes he might have a clearer path. He doesn’t walk many, and he throws lots of ground balls. A team with a short pen and a good infield defense could use him. Cardinals? Not sure of their bullpen situation.
Jays could be a destination too as their bullpen has been shaky all season besides a couple of arms
No team is likely to give him an MLB slot with teams down to 13 pitchers. Injurious though could get him back up and his agent is likely addressing who in three weeks is likely to have a need.
When reporters asked him multiple times why he elected free agency, Weber objected to the grilling.
You’d think he could stand the heat
I wish he could be back , but I wish him the best hope u gets a great opportunity someplace.
He had the best moment of his career last week
He actually pitched a few decent games for Boston over the last few years but he’s so inconsistent that you can’t risk holding a spot for him on the staff, especially with only 13 pitchers now.
If my Sox picked up a guy with an ERA of approx 8.50, they should give Weber another try especially since his ERA is 3 points lower.
If the Sox picked up James Norwood who has an ERA of 8.50, they should try Weber again and hope they get lightning in a bottle.
Norwood lasted one day on the roster, LOL
Someone is going to get designated when German comes back.
Would Weber have flushed an 8-3 lead?
99/100 times…. Probably. There’s a reason why he hasn’t been a big league pitcher. Yankees had two of their dominant relievers miss repeatedly. Jays capitalized on their mistakes. Plus the HP ump was incredibly inconsistent (which is nothing new to the Yankees), but it certainly had a major impact in their rally inning.
All-in-all, it’s one game. Yankees have beaten the Jays pretty unevenly this season, and they won this series too. If not for the meltdowns, it would’ve been a clean sweep and two severe beatings. Jays needed to score more than 8 runs just to win…. Yanks are still about 400 games in front.
I believe the issue was Boone. He put Castro in a spot that increased his chance of failure. Start the inning clean, no men on, and there’s a high probability he gets three outs before disaster. Bring him in with two men on and no outs? You’re asking for trouble. Castro can strike out the side and walk the side. He’s not someone I’d want to bring in with a couple men already on base. Boone’s failure was letting Severino start the inning without it seems the commitment to let him finish the inning. If he was running out of gas, he should have started the inning with Castro. Sunday’s game was going to be the B relievers. Understand that and position them for the best chance of success. I say that understanding that Boone knows way more about this than I do, but I didn’t like the decision when it was unfolding.
I admit, it’s also silly we’re still discussing Sunday’s game when they win again last night and they’re 86,000 games above .500. (Perhaps a slight exaggeration.). It’s a funny thing about baseball that fans of all teams can identify with. We cling to losses more than we do wins!
Yeah, excellent points, L99. I agree with you about the decision-making processes. I think Wandy’s leash was a bit too long. He didn’t have it from the start. You could see that he was having a lot of trouble locating both his FB and his CH.
But, it’s hindsight, if that’s the worst thing we deal with? Okay, awesome! As long as Boone learns and adjusts throughout the season.
I thought the same thing about Severino. His pitch count was up there. I am afraid Boone is gonna ride him too hard again going forward.
Your last sentence is really a measure of faith. 12 years of disappointment will do that to fans.
I’ll take it further. Had the Yankees won that game, it wouldn’t have shocked me if Montoyo got the ax the next day. If you look at what the Jays have invested during his tenure along with the season ending results, his seat must be getting hot.