Why Yankees Breakout Star Could Be Royals' Biggest Regret Of 2024 Season
The New York Yankees are the Kansas City Royals' current adversary. But it didn't have to be that way for every member of the Yankees' roster.
On Saturday night, Yankees closer Luke Weaver, who has had something of a meteoric rise in 2024, took the hill and blanked the Royals for an impressive four-out save. That stamped Kansas City with a 6-5 loss, and two more defeats would send them packing for good this October.
Weaver looks at home now in pinstripes, but it was a real struggle for him to find a long-term role in a big-league organizations. He played for five teams before he got to the Yankees, and it appears all five of those teams whiffed on him. Unfortunately, the Royals were one of those teams.
Weaver pitched in 14 games for the Royals in 2022, all out of the bullpen. He put up a 5.59 ERA in 19.1 innings, allowing 28 hits, but the peripheral signs of talent were there. His 2.70 FIP suggested there could still be a breakout to come.
Ultimately, Weaver seemed to think he could still be a starting pitcher, and that led to him being waived in October, when he was claimed by the Seattle Mariners. Joel Sherman of the New York Post detailed how the Royals sensed a future closer in Weaver before he sensed it himself in a piece on Sunday.
"The 2022 Royals were well into their sixth straight losing season and were on to planning for 2023, when they obtained Weaver from the Diamondbacks at the Aug. 1 trade deadline for third baseman Emmanuel Rivera," Sherman said.
"J.J. Picollo, Kansas City’s GM then and now, thought there was the potential for a high-end reliever and figured the Royals could use the rest of that season as preparation for the following year. He smiles wryly before Game 1 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium because he knows what didn’t happen for him and his team finally has in major league stop No. 6 for Weaver."
Sherman also quoted Picollo, who seemed to wryly acknowledge the mistake he and his staff had made by allowing Weaver to play somewhere else.
“We were in a position where we could afford to try things,” Piccolo said. “But the half a year that he was with us, it didn’t seem like it was going the way we wanted it to go.”
Perhaps there is an alternate universe where Weaver could have been the lockdown closer for the Royals, not the one trying to exterminate them in October. But what's done is done.
Now, the Royals just have to figure out how they can beat the fiery right-hander.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org