On a random September afternoon in 2023, Luke Weaver looked like a footnote. Another waiver claim. Another arm passing through the New York Yankees system with little expectation attached to it.
Less than two years later, he left the Bronx as a revived big leaguer with a nine-figure franchise to thank and a $22 million deal across town.
That arc matters. Not just because Weaver signed with the New York Mets this week, but because it underscores how thin the line can be between irrelevance and reinvention in modern baseball.
The Claim That Changed Everything
When the Yankees claimed Weaver in September of 2023, the résumé was bleak. Since the shortened 2020 season, he had struggled to stay healthy and effective, bouncing between rotations and bullpens without finding traction. His fastball command wavered. His secondary pitches flattened out. The results followed.
The Yankees saw something salvageable anyway.
Working behind the scenes, they simplified his approach and leaned into what still worked. Weaver attacked the zone more decisively. His pitch mix sharpened. The confidence returned first, then the outs.
By 2024, he was a legitimate contributor, posting a 2.89 ERA while striking out 103 hitters. That is not window dressing. That is production. For a team that constantly churns the bottom of its pitching staff, Weaver became dependable, and sometimes more than that.
A Complicated 2025, Still Valuable
The 2025 season told a messier story, though not an uncommon one. Weaver finished with a 3.62 ERA, solid on paper but uneven in practice. He battled inconsistency and eventually a hamstring injury that cut into his availability when the Yankees needed him most.
The ending was rough. His struggles in the stretch run and postseason are what fans remember first, because that is how baseball works in October. Fair or not, late innings linger longer than early-season steadiness.
Still, zoom out and the picture changes. Over two seasons, the Yankees extracted real value from a pitcher many teams had already written off. Weaver stabilized games, soaked up innings, and helped bridge rotations stretched thin by injuries and volatility.
Why the Yankees Probably Tried to Keep Him
Entering free agency, Weaver made sense as a potential reunion candidate. The Yankees knew him. He knew the system. If the hamstring injury had not complicated things, it is hard to imagine the front office not at least exploring a return on a short-term deal.
Instead, the Mets moved decisively. Two years. $22 million. A clear vote of confidence in what Weaver became, not what he once was.
That confidence was built in the Bronx.
A Farewell That Felt Earned
After finalizing his deal with the Mets, Weaver took to Instagram to thank Yankees fans in a message that felt genuine, not obligatory.
“My career coming to what felt like an end,” he wrote. “Overwhelmed with injuries and failure.”
He credited faith, opportunity, and the support he received from the fanbase. For a player whose career once teetered on the edge, it read like closure.
And it should. The Yankees helped change the trajectory of his career and significantly increased his earning potential. That is true. But Weaver did the harder part. He adapted. He trusted the process. He pitched well enough for long enough to matter.
Not every comeback ends cleanly. This one did not. But it worked. And for a waiver claim who arrived with almost nothing left, that is more than enough.