Luke Weaver

Luke Weaver got designated for assignment twice in the same summer -- once by the Reds, once by the Mariners -- before the New York Yankees claimed him off waivers in September 2023 like a guy fished out of the discount bin. Thirteen months later he was closing out an American League pennant. That's not a redemption arc you write, that's one that just happens to you, and for one glorious October, Weaver rode it about as far as it could go.

Path to the Bronx

Weaver was a first-round talent once -- Florida State product, 27th overall pick by the Cardinals in 2014, same draft class as Jack Flaherty. It just took him the better part of a decade to figure out what kind of pitcher he actually was. St. Louis shipped him to Arizona in the Paul Goldschmidt trade in December 2018 (yes, that trade -- Goldschmidt for a package headlined by a guy who'd eventually close games for the Yankees is a fun one to sit with). He nearly blew out his elbow with the Diamondbacks in 2019, dodging Tommy John surgery by inches, then bounced to Kansas City in 2022 and Cincinnati in 2023, getting released by the Reds in August of that year with a 6.87 ERA. Four days later Seattle signed him. Nineteen days after that, Seattle cut him loose too.

The Yankees claimed him off waivers on September 12, 2023, mostly because he was cheap and available and they needed arms. He made three unremarkable starts, went 1-1, and nobody outside the organization thought twice about it. (I sure didn't.) But it was enough for New York to bring him back on a one-year deal that January -- and that's the contract that changed everything.

Yankees Career

Weaver spent most of 2024 as rotation depth and middle relief, which is a nice way of saying nobody was building around him. Then Clay Holmes blew a save on September 3 and lost the ninth inning, Aaron Boone never formally named a replacement, and Weaver just... took it. First save came three days later at Wrigley Field. He converted all four chances that September, striking out 25 in 12 innings, and by October he wasn't just holding the job -- he was the best reliever on the roster.

The 2024 postseason is the stuff of actual legend around here. He saved all three Yankees wins in the ALDS over Kansas City, including a five-out save in Game 1 -- the first Yankee to get a four-plus-out save in a postseason debut since Joe Page in 1947, which is a freakin' wild stat to hang on a guy who couldn't stick with the Reds a year earlier. He blew his first career save in ALCS Game 3 against Cleveland (nobody's perfect), then came right back two days later and threw two scoreless innings to win Game 5 and send the Yankees to the World Series. A guy who couldn't stick with the Reds or Mariners for a full summer was suddenly the answer in the ninth inning of a pennant race. Baseball's weird like that.

Then 2025 happened, and it happened fast. The Yankees traded for Devin Williams that December, handing Weaver's job to a two-time All-Star before he'd thrown a single pitch to defend it. He got the ninth inning back on April 27 when Williams cratered, then strained his left hamstring warming up on June 1 and missed 17 days -- just long enough for Williams to reclaim the role. Weaver split saves for a stretch after returning, cooled off in July, and by the time David Bednar and Camilo Doval arrived at the trade deadline, he was a setup man on a team that had three other options ahead of him.

Key Moments

The Ending Nobody Saw Coming

Here's the part that's hard to square. The same guy who was automatic in October 2024 turned into one of the ugliest postseason lines you'll find anywhere in recent Yankees history a year later -- 0.1 innings pitched across three appearances, back-to-back outings (Wild Card Game 1 against Boston, then ALDS Game 1 against Toronto) where he didn't record a single out. Weaver himself pointed to mechanical issues and possible pitch tipping, telling reporters, "Baseball seems to be overwhelming a bit at the moment when the results aren't on your side." That's about as honest an admission as you'll get from a guy mid-collapse.

It's genuinely strange to hold both versions of Luke Weaver in your head at once -- the guy who saved a pennant and the guy who couldn't get an out a year later -- but that's the whole file. The Yankees didn't make him an offer that winter, and he didn't pretend to be shocked about it.

Two years, one pennant clinched, one collapse nobody could quite explain. If you're a Yankees fan who watched Weaver freeze Cleveland hitters in that ALCS, you already know the good version was real. The bad version was real too. That's baseball -- and that's Luke Weaver's file in the Bronx, for better and for worse.