ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Astros have done a masterful job of finding pitchers who are reclamation projects and turning them into viable Major League arms in the past 10 years, such as Collin McHugh, as well as taking established pitchers, like Gerrit Cole, and vaulting them to an elite level.
Whether they can do that with Ryan Weiss -- a 28-year-old right-hander who signed a one-year deal with a club option Tuesday at the Winter Meetings -- remains to be seen, but the Astros are banking on his upside potential with hopes he can be a dependable back-end rotation piece.
“If we can take our pitching knowledge, which I think we do very well, and get him to buy in to some of the stuff that we've done in the past to make guys better, he's the perfect candidate for that,” Astros general manager Dana Brown said Tuesday from the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. “And so you take his given talents and you take his makeup with our ability to coach pitching, I think it's a perfect story for him to be pretty good.”
The team continues to search for more starting pitching, with center fielder Jake Meyers remaining at the center of talks, a source said. The Astros are being creative in their pursuit of pitching considering the financial restraints the club is facing this winter.
Weiss, who spent the last two seasons pitching in Korea, will slot into the rotation with Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, Spencer Arrighetti, Lance McCullers Jr. and others. Nate Pearson, who signed a one-year deal in October, will be built up as a starter, but he could wind up in the bullpen.
“What I like about [Weiss] is this guy is dedicated to his craft,” Dana Brown said. “He went over to Korea and turned his career around and got to the point where he's back up to 97 [mph], sitting 94 [with] pretty good secondary stuff. The guy's got a journey and he's got a story, so we're fired up about him. We're hoping that he comes into camp and competes for a job at the back end of the rotation.”
Among the names on Houston’s radar, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, are Mike Burrows of the Pirates and left-handers Payton Tolle (ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 28 overall prospect) and Connelly Early of the Red Sox (Boston's No. 4 prospect). That’s the type of young and controllable pitching Houston would like to add.
“Any time I could build a strong pitching staff with depth, I think it gives you that much better of a chance to get back to the postseason and get deep,” Brown said.
Weiss posted a 3.16 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP with 305 strikeouts in 270 1/3 innings over the last two seasons with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. The 6-foot-4 Weiss was drafted by the D-backs in 2018 out of Wright State and has pitched in 132 career Minor League games (47 starts) with Arizona and Kansas City, reaching Triple-A in 2021-23. He also pitched in China in '23.
In 313 1/3 career Minor League innings, Weiss has a 4.88 ERA, a 1.42 WHIP and 294 strikeouts.
“I think the two big things that I look at, and especially in terms of becoming a starter, is he's got really good fastball usage, and he's a big, strong dude,” Brown said. “I mean, this guy's 6-4 with big, huge shoulders, a strong lower half and legs, and so I feel like he's got the durability to be good. He strikes out guys. He's showing that he can pitch innings. And when you can pitch innings and strike guys out, you need the opportunity to try to pitch in the Major Leagues.”
Colton Gordon, Jason Alexander, AJ Blubaugh (Houston's No. 16 prospect) and J.P. France will be in the mix for starters innings in Spring Training as well, but the Astros would like to add another arm and have some of those guys stashed in the Triple-A rotation.