LAS VEGAS -- Essentially, the Padres are building an entire rotation from scratch this winter. They had to start somewhere.
That somewhere is right-hander Ryan Weiss, who signed a Major League deal with the club on Tuesday, with a team option for the 2028 season.
Weiss, 29, posted a 7.62 ERA across nine outings with the Astros last season. He ended the year with Triple-A Sugar Land, and his strong finish there appears to have caught the Padres’ eye. Weiss posted a 1.37 ERA across his final four appearances with 24 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings.
Weiss had spent the previous two seasons pitching for the Hanwha Eagles in the Korea Baseball Organization, where he notched a 3.16 ERA across 46 starts. He sports a fastball in the mid-90s and pairs it with a sweeper and a changeup.
In all likelihood, Weiss is the first arrival of many on the San Diego pitching staff. He still has an option year remaining, making him a low risk addition, who can be sent to the Minor Leagues. But Weiss will enter camp with a chance to compete for a rotation spot.
Talk of the Padres’ starting rotation dominated Day 1 of the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas, where GM A.J. Preller was asked how many starters he would need to add this offseason. Three? Four?
“Keep going,” Preller quipped.
A few hours later, Weiss became the first, joining a thin group of in-house rotation options that includes Randy Vásquez and little else. There are no guarantees on Joe Musgrove’s health or role. There’s no finality on Yu Darvish’s status for next season. A whopping seven starters from last year -- including Michael King, Nick Pivetta and Walker Buehler -- became free agents.
So, yeah, the Padres have work to do. Weiss, of course, isn’t the answer to all of those questions. But the Padres have a strong recent history with buy-low reclamation projects. His arrival, it seems, is only the start.
“You can never have too much, from a starting pitching standpoint,” Preller said. “We’re going to need multiples. You always need a lot of pitching. There’s a lot of different ways to go about it, both starting pitching and bullpen. That’s our job the next couple weeks -- to put a strong pitching staff back on the field.”