Luke Weaver, a reliever for the New York Yankees, apologized to all of his former colleagues during a 20-minute “Foul Territory” segment on Tuesday.
See, this season Weaver transitioned into a full-time role as a late-inning reliever. After being selected as a starting pitcher in the draft, he had a generally disappointing nine-year career. The 30-year-old passionately defended his participation when asked about the changeover and what startled him the most.
From beginning to end, Weaver expressed regret to all of the relievers who have supported him throughout his career. “Man, yeah, there’s days where I feel like maybe I helped you all out and you didn’t have to throw as much, but there’s plenty of days where I didn’t,” he said. Just to be like, I’m sorry, I don’t think starters truly appreciate how much of a backbone they are in keeping the game intact, unless they’ve done it.
“And just really getting through the finish line and the daily grind of getting ready to throw.” Simply said, a great deal of respect has been won. Although I didn’t intend to come across as shortsighted, I do have the utmost respect for what it takes to hold that position.
Weaver’s tirade may have been humorous at times, but the main points are sound: Even though they only work for shorter periods of time, relievers have challenging tasks and should be acknowledged as well.
Weaver has developed a fresh appreciation for the position, where he has developed into a potent late-inning weapon and may have even rescued his career with a change in pitch mix. Weaver has pitched 64 1/3 innings with a 3.50 ERA, 70 strikeouts, and 18 holds.
Weaver, a first-round selection of the St. Louis Cardinals, has just twice exceeded 100 innings pitched. Despite his poor performance, which includes a 5.05 ERA across 520 innings, he has been given numerous opportunities to start. Even though he spent all but one of his 26 appearances in the bullpen in 2022 (registering a 6.56 ERA), he was given 25 more opportunities to start in 2023, including three appearances with the Yankees following his waiver claim from the Seattle Mariners—the second time in a month that he was DFA’d.
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