Yankees call up veteran Ryan Weber for bullpen support

The Yankees have been cycling through various names in the back of the bullpen over the past week, as a few not-so-close games against the A’s allowed them to give their top arms a breather.

Veteran Nick Ramirez hadn’t pitched since April 30th before being called upon for the final two frames on Monday. He was then demoted in favor of rookie Greg Weissert, who was a little wild on Tuesday but pitched an inning regardless. Weissert himself was promptly farmed out and swapped with former top prospect Deivi García, who actually earned his first career save with three innings to close out yesterday’s 11-3 win ... and was promptly rewarded with a trip back to Triple-A Scranton.

Once again, the Yankees wanted a fresh arm, and it was especially important with a big four-game series beginning today against the first-place Rays. Since no one had been injured, they couldn’t recall Ramirez due to MLB’s option rules, so instead, they made a procedural move in order to sign back someone in Triple-A who made five appearances for them last year while riding the Scranton Shuttle: Ryan Weber.

Expect Weber to serve in a similar role to García as an in-case-of-emergency-or-blowout option. The 32-year-old right-hander has been around the block* and allowed just one run in 10.2 MLB innings last year, but he’s been a bit rocky as a Triple-A starter in 2023. He has a 5.77 ERA, 4.86 FIP, and 1.398 WHIP in 34.1 innings for Scranton thus far.

*This will be Weber’s ninth consecutive season of accruing MLB service time. Not bad at all for a former 22nd-rounder out of St. Petersburg College.

As for the corresponding move to make room for Weber on the 40-man roster, you’ll see above that Jonathan Loáisiga has unsurprisingly been transferred to the 60-day IL. It had already been announced that the standout reliever was going to be out until at least August due to elbow surgery to remove a bone spur.