{"id":572771,"date":"2026-02-14T20:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/572771\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T20:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:34:15","slug":"ryan-weathers-opens-up-to-the-post-about-being-a-yankee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/572771\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Weathers opens up to The Post about being a Yankee"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Yankees starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, who arrived in a January trade with the Marlins<\/a>, takes a swing at some spring training Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: When you think of the New York Yankees, what do you think of?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Did you ever watch the movie \u201cEveryone\u2019s Hero\u201d? When I was younger, it\u2019s an animated movie and he wanted to play for the Yankees (laugh). That\u2019s the movie I think of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: What do you think of when you think of the Yankees\u2019 tradition and former players, etc.?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Oh, I mean, it\u2019s awesome. When you think about what that logo carries, I mean, that New York logo. It hasn\u2019t been changed since they became the New York Yankees, and it\u2019s just a logo that\u2019s recognized throughout the whole world, the pinstripes. \u2026 Every team tries to emulate the pinstripes and it never looks the same, it\u2019s like you can\u2019t get away from like the classic pinstripes the Yankees carry. It\u2019s just cool for my name to be even associated with the New York Yankees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Have you actually put on the pinstripes?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I\u2019ve put on the pants, I haven\u2019t 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\u2019s such an honor to be able to wear \u2019em.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: What do you remember about the first time you pitched at Yankee Stadium, April 10, 2024<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u2026 that stuff just doesn\u2019t leave your brain. You walk in the Stadium and you see in right center George Steinbrenner\u2019s mural, you got the Judge\u2019s Chambers. It\u2019s such a cool ballpark, it\u2019s just an ode to history of the Yankees. It\u2019s just really cool to pitch there. I cannot wait to be on the home team pitching there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Yankees pitcher Ryan Weathers watching a workout at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Q: When you were getting chirped, what did you hear?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: (Laugh) Just normal banter, just whatever, but it just shows you just how into the game the crowd is. What\u2019s cool about Yankee fans is they understand the game, and they want to be a part of the game and it\u2019s just a very neat atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: What will it be like pitching on the big stage under the bright lights?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I could not be more excited to pitch, because at the end of the day, you\u2019re either going to throw the ball well or you don\u2019t. If you start worrying about being in New York and \u2026 if you let that stuff creep into your mind, it\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: How does failure weigh on the mind of a pitcher?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: If you\u2019re 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\u2019s three games in a row you\u2019ve 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 \u2026 The thing that got me through it is everybody loves you when you\u2019re doing well, and when you\u2019re doing bad, you\u2019re 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: How would you describe your mound mentality?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Ryan Weathers throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sept. 24, 2025, in Philadelphia. AP<\/p>\n

A: When the game starts I would definitely say I\u2019m a pitcher that sees red. My biggest goal is it\u2019s good to have the bulldog mentality. There\u2019s times you use it. And then there\u2019s not letting one pitch bleed into the next. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve 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\u2019t want them to know if I\u2019ve been pitching seven shutout or if I\u2019m in the second inning getting crushed. I want to keep the same even keel the whole time I\u2019m out there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Never let them see you sweat in other words.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: For sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: A pitcher who sees red?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I don\u2019t know what it is, but when I get on the mound, I think you just kind of black out and you\u2019re really focused on the task at hand \u2026 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: What drives you?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I would definitely say my wife [Thayer]. I have a baby boy coming in April. What\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Would you want your son to be a pitcher one day?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I want my son to be whatever he wants to (chuckle), but I wouldn\u2019t mind a left-handed pitcher, a switch-hitting catcher though (laugh).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miami Marlins pitcher Ryan Weathers throws a pitch during the first inning. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Q: The Padres drafted you seventh overall in 2018. Was there pressure?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: My 19-, 20-year-old year, I kind of had a quick buildup to the big leagues, so I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t really have time (laugh) to worry about any of that. But no, I don\u2019t 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 \u2026 you name it. Baseball\u2019s baseball, and it\u2019s always going to be baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Has your career been what you expected of yourself so far?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I feel like when I\u2019m 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\u2019t 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\u2019re trending really good right now in spring training, and hopefully I can stay on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Why do you believe the best is yet to come for Ryan Weathers?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I can\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Q: What is your best baseball moment?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: If he ever sees this or anything, he\u2019ll 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\u2019s one of the coolest moments I\u2019ve had because he\u2019s a really good dude. We just had so much banter about that in the clubhouse, and it was definitely one of the coolest things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Worst baseball moment \u2014 would that be catcher Nick Fortes accidentally hitting you<\/a> last June in the back of the head with a warmup throw to second base?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: (Laugh) I wouldn\u2019t say that\u2019s the worst moment. Fortes is one of my boys, we eat breakfast together, we\u2019re 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\u2019t mean to do that. \u2026 I would say my worst baseball day was probably \u2026 the turning point in my mental part of the game in my career. I just got traded to the Marlins, and I didn\u2019t 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, \u201cI cannot do this game anymore, this is brutal.\u201d I remember my wife told me, she goes, \u201cAre you going to go back to school?\u201d And I was like, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m going to figure this out. I am not going back to school (laugh).\u201d 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\u2019t have went through that worst day of my entire career, I don\u2019t think I could be where I\u2019m at now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Was that a bigger adversity for you than the injuries?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: For sure. The injuries were just so weird. You couldn\u2019t 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. \u2026 I did not want to not pitch last year, I did not want to have [just] eight starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Do you remember running around the 2004 clubhouse when your father pitched for the Mets?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Did your father show you his 1996 Yankees World Series ring?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I\u2019ve seen his ring from \u201996 and I\u2019ve seen his Toronto one, I think, from \u201991.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Did he tell you stories about the \u201996 Yankees?\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Weathers of the New York Yankees throws a pitch during a game against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A: He told me it\u2019s 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, \u201cHoly cow!\u201d Like the whole Yankee Stadium erupting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Whatever comes to mind: Aaron Judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: MVP \u2026 Captain. You\u2019re not the Captain of the Yankees by accident. It\u2019s been cool seeing from not being on his team what he\u2019s done for the game of baseball and then being on his team, just how he carries himself. He\u2019s a first-class human being. He\u2019s awesome. Just a really good dude.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Have you picked Max Fried\u2019s brain yet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s got me hooked on those playing catch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Gerrit Cole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u2019s cool getting to watch him do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Describe your wife, Thayer, and mom, Kelli.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: My wife, she played volleyball at the University of Florida. She\u2019s an athlete. I watched her play on two torn hip labrums. I\u2019ve seen her go through that pain. She\u2019s a rock star, she\u2019s the rock of our family. She\u2019s 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. \u2026 And when I think of my mom, my dad in summer couldn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s 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\u2019m her only son, so that mother-son bond, it\u2019s 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 \u2026 when we\u2019re going from the house and her taking care of our house. She\u2019s a mother, and I love her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Other than your dad, who were your favorite baseball players growing up?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Clayton Kershaw\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: You played basketball in high school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I was a shooter. I didn\u2019t really play a whole lot of defense. Just put me in the corner and let me fling it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Three dinner guests?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Jesus, Tiger Woods, FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt]. I\u2019d like to know how he got us though in the \u201940s, that\u2019d be cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Favorite movie?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: \u201cSweet Home Alabama.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Favorite actor?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Vince Vaughn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting pitcher Ryan Weathers #35 of the Miami Marlins throws against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning at Coors Field on September 17, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Q: Favorite actress?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: I love Debra [Patricia Heaton] of \u201cEverybody Loves Raymond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Favorite entertainers\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Toby Keith and Morgan Wallen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: Favorite meal?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: Steak, all day every day of the week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q: How hungry are you to win a World Series?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A: That\u2019s the pinnacle of the sport. It starts with all of us, one person can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yankees starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, who arrived in a January trade with the Marlins, takes a swing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,1816,778,58,4171,4,62,8471,185,430,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-572771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-marlins","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-marlins","12":"tag-miamimarlins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-new-york-yankees","15":"tag-serbys-qa","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-columnists","18":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116070899245078219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}