Luke Weaver

Luke Allen Weaver

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 2", Weight 170 lb.
School Florida State University
High School DeLand High School
Debut August 13, 2016

Born August 21, 1993 in DeLand, FL USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Luke Weaver was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school in the 19th round of the 2011 amateur draft but did not sign, opting to attend Florida State University instead. He was then taken by the St. Louis Cardinals and scout Ty Boyles in the first round of the 2014 amateur draft with the 27th overall pick. He signed for $1.843 million and made his pro debut that summer with the GCL Cardinals.

He first made it to the majors late in the 2016 season and went 1-4, 5.79 in 9 games. He had a good half-season in the majors in 2017, with a 7-2 record and a 3.88 ERA in 13 games (10 starts) and 60 1/3 innings. This gave the Cardinals hope that he would be one of their top starting pitchers in 2018, but he regressed, as his ERA rose to 4.95 in 30 games, and his record was 7-11. He gave up 150 hits in 136 1/3 innings, but did strike out 121 batters. After the season, he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks alongside fellow youngsters Carson Kelly and Andy Young and a Compensation Round B pick in the 2019 amateur draft in return for 1B Paul Goldschmidt.

Luke thrived on the D-Backs in 2019, as he improved dramatically. He had a rough first start that season, in which he gave up four runs in only four innings on March 31st to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he settled down and posted a 4-3 record with a 2.64 ERA in his next 10 starts. His changeup was his best pitch, as batters hit only .169 on it. His fastball was a good pitch too, limiting batters to a .239 average. Unfortunately, this success would not be sustained, as during the 6th inning on May 26th in a game against the San Francisco Giants, Weaver felt something in his arm. He was taken out of the game and was placed on the injured list with right forearm tightness, casting the rest of his season in doubt. However, he would make another start with the D-Backs near the end of the season on September 21st, throwing two innings against the San Diego Padres.

Just like in 2019, the D-backs were expecting big things from Weaver in 2020. The team expected him to be the fourth starter, sliding in between Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. However, just like most of the team's pitchers, Weaver underperformed, putting up an abysmal 1-9 record with a terrible 6.58 ERA in 12 starts. Weaver could not pitch deep in his starts, as he never went past 6 innings. He also had a problem limiting the long ball: hitters hit 10 in only 12 starts. However, his stuff was still there, fanning 55 batters in 52 innings. His 9 losses were the most in the National League during that pandemic-shortened season.

2021 was more friendly to Weaver, as through his first 8 starts he had a 2-3 record with a more respectable 4.50 ERA. On May 16th, he was pulled from his start against the Washington Nationals early due to pain in his right shoulder. Two days later, on May 18th, he was put on the injured list with a right shoulder strain. He only returned on September 1st and went 1-3 the rest of the way to finish at 3-6, 4.25 in 13 starts. In 2022, he began the season in the D-Backs' bullpen, going 1-1, 7.71 in 12 games. On August 1st, he was traded to the Kansas City Royals in return for OF Emmanuel Rivera. On September 25th, he was involved in a bizarre incident before a game against the Seattle Mariners as he got into an epic staredown context with former teammate Robbie Ray, now with the Mariners. The two refused to leave their position outside their respective dugouts when the performance of the National Anthem ended, and continued staring at one another while Royals starting pitcher Max Castillo started his warm-up tosses. When home plate umpire Adrian Johnson tried to wave them off, they still would not budge, and wanting to get the game going, Johnson just ejected both of them. Weaver actually blinked first, and his ejection was more costly as Ray, being a starting pitcher, was never going to pitch in the game anyway, which was not Weaver's case. In any case, the game turned out to be an epic one, with Kansas City erasing a nine-run deficit to win, 13-12.

After pitching for two teams in 2022, Luke went one better in 2023, appearing for three different teams. He signed with the Cincinnati Reds as a free agent that January, and went 2-4, 6.87 in 21 starts. He was hit very hard, surrendering 125 hits and 24 homers in 97 innings, so he arrived at that high ERA honestly. He was given his release on August 18th, but two other teams gave him a look before the season ended, first the Seattle Mariners who signed him less than a week after he was let go by the Reds, and then the New York Yankees who picked him up off waivers on September 12th. It wasn't obvious at the time, but that last change of uniform was the best thing that could have happened to him. With Seattle, he went 0-1, 6.08 in 5 games, including 1 start, covering 13 1/3 innings, and while he cut down his hit rate, he still wasn't an effective pitcher. He did better with New York, though, as in his 3 starts to finish the season, he went 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA and decent numbers all around. That earned him a return engagement with the Yankees in 2024, and while he was moved to the bullpen, he pitched well as a middle reliever, going 7-3, 2.89 in 62 games. When closer Clay Holmes struggled late in the season, he took over as the main arm in late-game situations, picking up 4 saves and 3 wins in September, while not giving up a single run in 8 outings starting on September 6th. That meant that he was the closer entering the postseason - his first time pitching in the playoffs - and he did good, with 12 outings over three series, a 1-0 record and 4 saves. In the World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, he pitched four times for a total of five innings, and only gave up 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 4. Overall, he struck out 16 batters in 15 1/3 postseason innings with just 2 walks. It would have been hard to ask him to pitch any better.

He had another good year in 2025, pitching another 64 games in relief. The Yankees had acquired Devin Williams in an off-season trade to be their closer, but Williams struggled badly at times, and whenever that happened, Luke took over for him and did well, picking while going 4-4, 3.62. He pitched fewer innings than the year before (he had logged 84 as had many stints of multiple innings), as he was now used in a traditional set-up man role when not being forced to close games in Williams' place, ending up with 64 2/3. During these, he struck out 72 opponents, and limited them to just 46 hits. It was hard to believe this was the same pitcher who was giving up base hit s by the bushel-load only two years earlier when he was starting for the Reds. This time, however, he couldn't keep it up in the postseason. He made one appearance in the Wils Card Series, in Game 1 against the Boston Red Sox on September 30th, and he put his team in a hole by coming into a tied game and allowing all three batters he faced to reach base. Two of them scored and New York lost the game, 3-1. His two appearances against the Toronto Blue Jays in the Division Series weren't any better, as he again failed to retire any of the three batters he faced in Game 1, and all three of them crossed the plate, before he finally got an out in Game 2, retiring the final batter of the 8th inning in a 13-7 loss. He did not pitch again after that as the Yankees were eliminated in four games.

He became a free agent after the 2025 season, and his recent postseason struggles notwithstanding, was a sought-after pitcher given he had put together two solid years back-to-back. There was some talk that he could be asked to return to a starting pitcher role, but in the end he just took a subway ride to the other side of town, signing with the New York Mets on December 17th, joining his former Yankees teammate Devin Williams who had done the same a week earlier. The Mets were rebuilding their bullpen following the departure of closer Edwin Diaz and the two were expected to reprise the roles they had filled in pinstripes the year before. The contract was for two years and $22 million.

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