New Yankees starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, who arrived in a January trade with the Marlins, takes a swing at some spring training Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: When you think of the New York Yankees, what do you think of?
A: Did you ever watch the movie “Everyone’s Hero”? When I was younger, it’s an animated movie and he wanted to play for the Yankees (laugh). That’s the movie I think of.
Q: What do you think of when you think of the Yankees’ tradition and former players, etc.?
A: Oh, I mean, it’s awesome. When you think about what that logo carries, I mean, that New York logo. It hasn’t been changed since they became the New York Yankees, and it’s just a logo that’s recognized throughout the whole world, the pinstripes. … Every team tries to emulate the pinstripes and it never looks the same, it’s like you can’t get away from like the classic pinstripes the Yankees carry. It’s just cool for my name to be even associated with the New York Yankees.
Q: Have you actually put on the pinstripes?
A: I’ve put on the pants, I haven’t put on the full uni, but I got to put on the pants for the last couple of days, and it just feels so cool and just it’s such an honor to be able to wear ’em.
Q: What do you remember about the first time you pitched at Yankee Stadium, April 10, 2024?
A: One, just the crowd, just how into the game they were. Obviously I was pitching with the Marlins, but you know, getting chirped in the bullpen … that stuff just doesn’t leave your brain. You walk in the Stadium and you see in right center George Steinbrenner’s mural, you got the Judge’s Chambers. It’s such a cool ballpark, it’s just an ode to history of the Yankees. It’s just really cool to pitch there. I cannot wait to be on the home team pitching there.
Q: When you were getting chirped, what did you hear?
A: (Laugh) Just normal banter, just whatever, but it just shows you just how into the game the crowd is. What’s cool about Yankee fans is they understand the game, and they want to be a part of the game and it’s just a very neat atmosphere.
Q: What will it be like pitching on the big stage under the bright lights?
A: I could not be more excited to pitch, because at the end of the day, you’re either going to throw the ball well or you don’t. If you start worrying about being in New York and … if you let that stuff creep into your mind, it’s just going to take you away from doing your job. My job is go out there and do the best that Ryan Weathers can do and help the New York Yankees win games. Thankfully I’ve been in the big leagues for a couple of years, and I thank the Marlins for letting me get my feet under me, and they let me fail at that level and learn from it. So I cannot be more excited to pitch for the Yankees.
Q: How does failure weigh on the mind of a pitcher?
A: If you’re a bullpen guy, you have to have the ability to flush it because you could be in the ballgame the next day. As a starter, it can be tough sometimes because you want to get back out there so bad, but you have to wait four or five days to get back out there. I think the biggest thing I learned from failure was just it’s three games in a row you’ve gotten hit the same way or given up runs the same way, are you going to continue to pitch the same way, or are you going to try to change it up and learn from staying out of a certain part of the plate? I really leaned on my dad a lot just with the failure. Anybody can prep for your whole life, but until you actually have to face failure yourself and look yourself in the mirror … The thing that got me through it is everybody loves you when you’re doing well, and when you’re doing bad, you’re the only person that can bring yourself out from that hole, and you just learn how to just scratch the bottom of the barrel and work yourself out and just put your nose to the grindstone.
Q: How would you describe your mound mentality?
A: When the game starts I would definitely say I’m a pitcher that sees red. My biggest goal is it’s good to have the bulldog mentality. There’s times you use it. And then there’s not letting one pitch bleed into the next. That’s what I’ve really been working on the last couple of years. I want when somebody looks out there on the mound, if there was no scoreboard, I don’t want them to know if I’ve been pitching seven shutout or if I’m in the second inning getting crushed. I want to keep the same even keel the whole time I’m out there.
Q: Never let them see you sweat in other words.
A: For sure.
Q: A pitcher who sees red?
A: I don’t know what it is, but when I get on the mound, I think you just kind of black out and you’re really focused on the task at hand … just want to be aggressive in the zone, want to pitch at 130 pitches (chuckle) whatever it may be, you just want to stay out there.
Q: What drives you?
A: I would definitely say my wife [Thayer]. I have a baby boy coming in April. What’s incredible about this game and this job is when you treat it like a job, you can set up generational wealth for your family, you can put your kids through college, sometimes at the age of 40 you can be done, and you can just watch all of your kids play every sport. That’s what my dad [ex-Yankees pitcher David] did for me. I saw the toll that it took off of my mom, and I just want to be able to do the same for my wife. Family drives me in everything.
Q: Would you want your son to be a pitcher one day?
A: I want my son to be whatever he wants to (chuckle), but I wouldn’t mind a left-handed pitcher, a switch-hitting catcher though (laugh).
Q: The Padres drafted you seventh overall in 2018. Was there pressure?
A: My 19-, 20-year-old year, I kind of had a quick buildup to the big leagues, so I didn’t really have time to listen to any of that, or worry about any of that, because at the age of 20 I just got thrusted into the division series [2020 against the Dodgers] and didn’t really have time (laugh) to worry about any of that. But no, I don’t think it creates any pressure or anything like that. I got teammates from the first round all the way to the 25th round, coming from junior college, high school … you name it. Baseball’s baseball, and it’s always going to be baseball.
Q: Has your career been what you expected of yourself so far?
A: I feel like when I’m on the field I feel like that I can help the team win ballgames. Problem is the past year-and-a-half is I haven’t been on the field [left forearm and left lat strains]. I want to pride myself on being available. Recently I have not been available. But hopefully that all changes this year. The Yankees have me on a really good program. We were trending really good in the offseason. We’re trending really good right now in spring training, and hopefully I can stay on the field.
Q: Why do you believe the best is yet to come for Ryan Weathers?
A: I can’t really answer that, only the Good Lord knows that. I just know that the Yankees are putting me in a good spot to be healthy. I don’t care what my numbers are, I just want to go out there and be available for [manager Aaron] Booney and the Yankees, and whatever capacity they need me, I just want to be able to pitch from March all the way until whenever our last game is.
Q: What is your best baseball moment?
A: If he ever sees this or anything, he’ll kill me, but one of my buddies with the Marlins, Brax Garrett, in 2021 I hit a homer off him in Miami to dead center, and when I got traded [from the Padres on Aug. 1, 2023], we ended up being really, really good friends (laugh). Now that I know him really well, that’s one of the coolest moments I’ve had because he’s a really good dude. We just had so much banter about that in the clubhouse, and it was definitely one of the coolest things.
Q: Worst baseball moment — would that be catcher Nick Fortes accidentally hitting you last June in the back of the head with a warmup throw to second base?
A: (Laugh) I wouldn’t say that’s the worst moment. Fortes is one of my boys, we eat breakfast together, we’re hanging out in the locker room all the time playing pool, whatever it may be. That was tough all around, because it was totally unintentional and he didn’t mean to do that. … I would say my worst baseball day was probably … the turning point in my mental part of the game in my career. I just got traded to the Marlins, and I didn’t pitch for about 12 days, and then I got recalled to pitch against the Rangers and I came out of the bullpen, and I got whacked all over the ballpark. I got optioned after the game, and I remember going to my hotel room being like, “I cannot do this game anymore, this is brutal.” I remember my wife told me, she goes, “Are you going to go back to school?” And I was like, “You know what? I’m going to figure this out. I am not going back to school (laugh).” That really gave me perspective in the game, and I went down to Triple-A, and that Triple-A team in Jacksonville made me re-love the game. If I wouldn’t have went through that worst day of my entire career, I don’t think I could be where I’m at now.
Q: Was that a bigger adversity for you than the injuries?
A: For sure. The injuries were just so weird. You couldn’t really label them as major injuries. They were in between minor and major just to the point where like I could not pitch through them. I had the finger injury in 2024, the injury only happens in rock climbers, and somehow on a baseball field that happened. … I did not want to not pitch last year, I did not want to have [just] eight starts.
Q: Do you remember running around the 2004 clubhouse when your father pitched for the Mets?
A: (Laugh) I very vaguely remember the Mets. That was when I was about 3 and 4 years old. I remember most of my time in Cincinnati.
Q: Did your father show you his 1996 Yankees World Series ring?
A: I’ve seen his ring from ’96 and I’ve seen his Toronto one, I think, from ’91.
Q: Did he tell you stories about the ’96 Yankees?
A: He told me it’s one of his favorite moments was when he punched out Javy Lopez [Game 6]. He said it was one of the moments in his career that was like, “Holy cow!” Like the whole Yankee Stadium erupting.
Q: Whatever comes to mind: Aaron Judge.
A: MVP … Captain. You’re not the Captain of the Yankees by accident. It’s been cool seeing from not being on his team what he’s done for the game of baseball and then being on his team, just how he carries himself. He’s a first-class human being. He’s awesome. Just a really good dude.
Q: Have you picked Max Fried’s brain yet?
A: We have these spin balls that we use, you color the ball where you can see your four-seam spin and your breaking ball spin, and he’s got me hooked on those playing catch.
Q: Gerrit Cole.
A: Just from my interactions with him and talking to him, like a really, really good knowledge for the game. Obviously Cy Young pitcher, really good dude, really controls the pitching staff, just a good leader for us. His body of work speaks for itself, and it’s cool getting to watch him do that.
Q: Describe your wife, Thayer, and mom, Kelli.
A: My wife, she played volleyball at the University of Florida. She’s an athlete. I watched her play on two torn hip labrums. I’ve seen her go through that pain. She’s a rock star, she’s the rock of our family. She’s a wonderful human being, one of the best cooks I know in the entire world. She takes care of the house. She is just a hard worker. … And when I think of my mom, my dad in summer couldn’t be at all of my games, and I remember her taking me every day, every other Tuesday, Thursday in Florence, Kentucky. I played in the machine pitch league one year that when we were in Cincinnati, and her running me around Florence, Kentucky, just playing all these games.
She’s been the rock of our family. I was always her travel buddy when Dad played. I got to play hoops when I was in high school, and that was what she played when she was in college. So it was cool getting to share that with her. I’m her only son, so that mother-son bond, it’s awesome, and as I get older the more I appreciate what she did for me in my younger years and through high school and even through now … when we’re going from the house and her taking care of our house. She’s a mother, and I love her.
Q: Other than your dad, who were your favorite baseball players growing up?
A: Clayton Kershaw’s definitely one, being a left-handed pitcher, first time I had seen him in person I was like a kid in a candy shop, it was so cool. Position players, I loved watching Ken Griffey Jr. Joey Votto was always fun to watch.
Q: You played basketball in high school.
A: I was a shooter. I didn’t really play a whole lot of defense. Just put me in the corner and let me fling it.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Jesus, Tiger Woods, FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt]. I’d like to know how he got us though in the ’40s, that’d be cool.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Vince Vaughn.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: I love Debra [Patricia Heaton] of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Q: Favorite entertainers”
A: Toby Keith and Morgan Wallen.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Steak, all day every day of the week.
Q: How hungry are you to win a World Series?
A: That’s the pinnacle of the sport. It starts with all of us, one person can’t do it. This is a really fun team to be a part of, really good team camaraderie, and I look forward to pitching for these guys and having them play behind me, and hopefully we can win some ballgames, and just see where it takes us.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
