Ryan Weathers is throwing the ball as well as he ever has, and there’s no denying the turnaround.
The left-hander has overhauled his pitch mix, dialing back the four-seamer that used to get hit hard and leaning more heavily on his sinker and secondary pitches. The result is a pitcher who looks completely different from the one with a career ERA around 5.00, a losing record and an injury history that included finger, flexor and lat problems.
His latest work was impressive, too. Weathers delivered 7 1/3 innings of one-run baseball against Toronto, a strong outing that fits the way he’s pitching right now.
But the bigger point here is what Weathers says about the way Brian Cashman has been building the Yankees.
Too often, it feels like the organization is chasing upside instead of simply going out and getting the best players available. The formula has become familiar: take a shot on the injured arm, the underachiever, the reclamation project, then hope the Yankees can turn the player into something more.
Sometimes that approach pays off. Weathers is paying off at the moment.
The frustration, though, is that this kind of success can make the gamble look smarter than it really is. When one of these bets hits, it’s easy to dress it up as proof of a grand plan. But this is still a roll of the dice, and Weathers’ sudden surge doesn’t change that.
Maybe he really has found something. Maybe the pitch mix adjustment has unlocked a new version of him.
Maybe Matt Blake has helped another pitcher get on track. Maybe the Yankees land a bargain-bin pickup who turns into a postseason weapon.
Maybe.
That’s the issue. At some point, hope starts to look less like a backup plan and more like the actual strategy. For a team with the Yankees’ resources, that’s a hard way to live.
So yes, Weathers deserves credit for what he’s doing right now. He’s earned it. But his hot streak shouldn’t be used as evidence that Cashman has cracked some hidden code.
The Yankees rolled the dice, and this time the number came up their way. The problem is they shouldn’t have to keep going back to the casino to build a championship roster.
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