NEW YORK -- Luke Weaver has been traded twice in his career, once at the Deadline. He has been designated for assignment multiple times, released once. He has played for seven different teams and gone through free agency on more than one occasion.
Players throughout baseball so frequently refer to the sport as “a business” that the phrase has become cliché. But Weaver? He’s lived it.
So Weaver, who pitched a scoreless eighth in the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Braves during Game 1 of a doubleheader on Wednesday, is not disturbed by the trade rumors surrounding him. He understands there’s a reasonable chance he’ll be pitching elsewhere by this time next week. He also knows he might stay.
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“It was certainly a lot harder in the past,” Weaver said of navigating that ambiguity. “Unfortunately and fortunately, I’ve had a lot of experience through different waves of these circumstances … so I think that gives me peace. My wife and I understand this game, and we’re mentally prepared, to an extent. But we’re also not by any means one foot out the door.”
It’s no secret around the industry that by Monday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline, the Mets will deal left-handed relievers Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter. Those two can become free agents after the season. For a last-place team, keeping them would be folly.
Less obvious are the fates of Weaver and Huascar Brazobán, two stalwarts of the bullpen who can be cogs next year, too … provided they’re still in Queens beyond Aug. 3. Brazobán earned the win in the Mets’ third straight victory on Wednesday, firing a perfect seventh. Weaver followed with his 15th hold, inducing a Matt Olson inning-ending double play to make Carson Benge’s go-ahead RBI double stand up as the game-winner.
“As a manager, I’ve sat in the seat when you don’t have those bridge pieces and you don’t feel very smart,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “You don’t know where to go. You don’t know who to hand the ball to sometimes. Having guys like that, that step up and dominate their roles, they tend to make you look smart when you hand them the baseball.”
How the Mets handle Weaver and Brazobán will matter quite a bit once team officials begin planning for 2027. If the Mets bring both pitchers back, they will rejoin Devin Williams as part of a bullpen core already in place. Weaver is under contract for one more season after this one, at $12.5 million. Brazobán has three more years of team control and will be arbitration-eligible for all of them.
If the Mets decide to sell high on those two, they’ll need to rebuild their relief corps mostly from scratch. Williams will almost certainly return, because his high remaining salary (more than $13 million in 2027 and ’28, plus significant deferred money) and his bloated ERA (still 4.29 even after Wednesday’s save) make him difficult to deal.
Among bullpen arms, then, only Weaver and Brazobán are in a clear state of limbo, their fates dependent on the types of offers the Mets receive. One contending executive said he doubted his team would be able to afford controllable relievers like those two, considering their high expected price tag. Still, almost every contender could use a reliever. Should the Mets choose to trade Weaver and Brazobán, a robust market will exist for them.
“There’s some peace in understanding that it’s out of our control,” Weaver said. “We’ll adjust any way we need to. But my focus is right where I’m at.”
For Weaver, that means spending the next few days throwing the way he has all season. His scoreless inning Wednesday lowered his ERA to 1.88 in 41 appearances. Since May 1, Weaver has pitched to an 0.29 mark.
While Brazobán hasn’t been quite that good, he’s still managed a 2.61 ERA while serving as an opener, middle reliever and end-game specialist. For both pitchers, moving to a contender in the heat of a pennant race would have its benefits. So would staying in a place they know well.
“It’s an interesting circumstance, for sure,” Weaver said. “I think it’s a unique way of how our business works, and I guess sports in general. … It is a blessing and a curse, so to speak.”