This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The small town of Loretto, Tenn., has a population of approximately 3,000 people, but it has no shortage of baseball talent.
Over the past several years, the city has seen two of its native sons break into the big leagues: Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers and Giants pitching prospect Blade Tidwell.
Weathers, 26, and Tidwell, 24, are two years apart, but they grew up playing travel ball together and were high school teammates at Loretto High School, where they teamed up to win a state baseball championship in 2017.
The two came close to reuniting in the Majors during the Giants’ opening series against the Yankees this week, but those hopes were dashed after Tidwell was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento to start the season. Still, Weathers said he believes it’ll only be a matter of time before Tidwell, the Giants’ No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has a chance to emerge as a big league contributor in San Francisco.
“It would have been really cool [to see him],” Weathers said Wednesday. “But I know he's going to make an impact for the Giants this year in some capacity. He's got a really good arm, and I'm excited for him.”
Weathers said he was probably 12 years old when he first met Tidwell, who ended up earning a spot on his travel ball team despite being slightly younger than the rest of the team. The two have remained training partners over the years, meaning they both got to learn from Weathers’ father, David, who pitched in the Majors for 19 seasons from 1991-2009.
“I think my dad was very old-school, so all of our stuff was mechanics,” the younger Weathers said. “He really helped Blade with mechanics like he helped me. Blade’s got really good stuff. In the offseason, we have TrackMan. We tinkered with stuff and worked on stuff. He's getting better and better.”
“We throw bullpens together in the offseason,” Tidwell said. “He bought a TrackMan two years ago. And his dad, David, played in the league for 19 seasons. He was my travel ball coach when I was 9. High school coach, middle school coach. I have a pretty good relationship with them.”
Weathers was selected by the Padres in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Loretto High School and debuted in the Majors in 2020, though Tidwell had to wait a bit longer to follow him into pro ball. The 6-foot-3 right-hander opted to head to college and play under new Giants manager Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee, where he pitched well enough to develop into a second-round Draft pick for the Mets in 2022.
Vitello said he believes Tidwell’s ability to learn from Weathers and his dad helped set him up for success once he got to Knoxville.
“I really think the Weathers family deserves a Christmas gift from him,” Vitello said. “The fact that he was able to train with them meant a small-town Tennessee kid -- we always tease him that he’s goofy. Don’t tell him, but he’s actually very intelligent. But if you were to stereotype or jump to conclusions, you’d think, ‘This guy is going to be raw.’
"Well, he was a pro on how he went about his business as a freshman. It’s one of the reasons he allowed himself to get a role. He was already a pro at how he handled his routines. I think a lot of it was the people he was training with and the house he grew up in, as well.”
Tidwell debuted with the Mets last May, though he appeared in only four games before he was dealt to the Giants as part of the Tyler Rogers trade. Tidwell has yet to receive his first big league callup with the Giants, but Weather said he thinks Oracle Park will be a better fit for his longtime friend than Citi Field.
“I think him coming to the Giants is a good change for him,” Weathers said. “Good change of scenery. And then obviously, he has some familiar faces here too, with Vitello. He's going to be a good big league pitcher one day.”
Given their small-town roots, Weathers remains amazed that both of them have gotten the chance to represent Loretto in the Majors.
“Our high school has a little over 400 students, and we have two big leaguers out of the same high school in the same age group,” Weathers said. “It's really cool. We're both from small towns. Being from a small town, you kind of have that pride on your shoulder. You're from a town of 3,000 people. I graduated with 72 people. It's cool to have another friend like me at this level. I want to see him perform well at this level. Anytime he pitches, I want him to do well.
“Obviously, if it’s against us, I hope he does well, and we win the game. But I want him to do well because it's an honor to be in this league and to be from the same school.”