Why Yankees' newest pitcher is a big breakout candidate

By David Adler | 5:57 PM EST

This browser does not support the video element.

Ryan Weathers is more than just a stopgap for the Yankees while Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón get healthy.

The 26-year-old left-hander, who was acquired in a trade with the Marlins on Tuesday, actually offers a lot of upside to the Bronx Bombers' pitching staff in 2026.

Weathers is a young, big arm, and if he can stay healthy himself, he'll inject even more high-ceiling talent into an already talented Yankees starting rotation. There's a lot to like about him in New York.

Here's why Weathers is a breakout candidate to watch this season.

1) His best comps are three elite strikeout artists

Statcast has a "similarity score" for pitchers, which looks at their pitch arsenal -- both velocity and movement -- and finds the other pitchers who are the best comparisons for them.

The three pitchers with the closest stuff to Weathers' in 2025? Jesús Luzardo, Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet, in that order.

That's about as good of a trio as you could have. Three elite lefties, all with over 200 strikeouts last season, including the top two AL Cy Young finishers in Skubal and Crochet and the seventh-place NL pitcher in Luzardo.

So what about Weathers resembles those three star southpaws? Here's what his pitch profile looked like last season compared to Luzardo, his closest comp; Skubal, his next-closest; and Crochet, his third-closest.

The comps are who they are because of Weathers' high-90s fastball (which Skubal, Crochet and Luzardo all have), the sharp mid-80s sweeper (similar to Luzardo and Crochet) and the upper-80s changeup (similar to Luzardo and Skubal).

Weathers has three overpowering pitches that give him clear parallels, at least in terms of the raw stuff, to three overpowering pitchers. Let's look at the heater first, which must have stood out to the Yankees when they targeted Weathers.

This browser does not support the video element.

2) He's one of the hardest-throwing lefty starters

Last year, it was a big story out of Marlins Spring Training that Weathers' velocity was way up. He was sitting at 97 mph -- one mph harder than he was throwing in 2024, two mph harder than he was throwing in 2023 and three mph harder than he was throwing at the start of his big league career in 2021.

Then he got hurt, and his injuries derailed a lot of his season. But when Weathers was on the mound, the velo bump stuck.

Weathers averaged 96.9 mph on his four-seam fastball over his eight starts in 2025. That was the second-highest fastball velocity among lefty starters, behind only Skubal.

Weathers was one of only nine left-handed starting pitchers to average 95-plus mph on his heater. The Yankees' ace lefty, Max Fried, was another. But Weathers throws harder than him.

LH SP with 95+ mph fastball velocity in 2025
Min. 100 4-seamers thrown

That list is basically a collection of the most dominant lefties in the league, plus two young up-and-comers in Weathers and Tolle. Skubal, Luzardo and Crochet all struck out over 200 batters last year. Fried and Gore struck out over 180. Ragans and Snell were both limited by injury in 2025, but the last time each of them pitched a full season (Ragans in 2024, Snell in 2023), they both had over 200 K's.

Hard-throwing left-handers are still at a premium in the Major Leagues. The Yanks, with Weathers and Fried, and the Red Sox, with Crochet and Tolle, were the only teams with two top-10 velo southpaws. Even as velocities continue to rise league-wide, the average fastball velocity for a lefty big league starter was still just under 93 mph in 2025. Weathers was throwing four full mph harder than that.

And now that the Yankees have Weathers, their rotation could be loaded with hard throwers in 2026 -- between him, Cam Schlittler, Gil and Cole when he comes back.

This browser does not support the video element.

3) He already has a swing-and-miss breaking ball and offspeed pitch

Besides the big fastball, Weathers also has an effective combo of secondary pitches to get both right-handed and left-handed hitters out.

Weathers' sweeper, his top weapon to get lefties out, sits around 84 mph and breaks 10 inches from left to right. His changeup, his main out pitch against righties, sits at 87 mph and fades 13 inches in the opposite direction.

Both pitches generate high swing-and-miss rates. In 2025, the changeup induced a 41% whiff rate and 30% strikeout rate. The sweeper induced a 39% whiff rate and 35% strikeout rate. And both play well off Weathers' high-velocity fastball.

Between his four-seamer, sweeper and changeup, Weathers has all of the three main pitch groups covered: fastball, breaking and offspeed. He has one very good pitch in each category.

That's a strong foundation for Weathers in the Bronx. And the Yankees' pitching lab might even be able to tweak a few things, or expand his arsenal a little bit, to make him even better.

More from MLB.com