Luke Weaver began the season uncertain of his MLB future beyond 2024. He had been designated for assignment twice in a span of one month a season prior, but showed enough in his brief stint with the Yankees to earn a $2 million contract.
Now, the MLB journeyman is preparing for the World Series as the Yankees closer, looking to become the man standing on the mound to celebrate a championship, something no Yankee besides Mariano Rivera has done since 1996.
How did Weaver pull off such a drastic and unprecedented turnaround? With a little help from his opponent in the other dugout, who will be looking to stop Weaver and the Yanks from capturing their first title in 15 years.
As Weaver has told before, he drastically cut back on his leg kick after watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto do the same with his mechanics, which helped him become a dominant pitcher in Japan and ultimately earn a $325 million contract with the Dodgers prior to this season. Weaver decided to deploy more of a slidestep in his delivery, his front foot barely raising above his right ankle as he begins his move toward home plate. The ever-so-slight leg lift slows Weaver down before he comes to the plate, resulting in increased velocity, spin, and efficiency.
“I made the change to simplify the leg kick, and I saw he signed with the Dodgers shortly after,” Weaver told Rob Bradford of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. “Then we really started to see his mechanics. We really started to see something different. Of course the world didn’t know what I was doing. I was at my house in my garage doing my thing. But it was a really cool template. It was cool to see how efficiently he was working and how it worked for him.”
The change worked wonders for Weaver, transforming his career at 31 years old, not long after wondering if his career was over. The righty carried a 3.33 ERA into the final month of the season before taking the closer role over from the struggling Clay Holmes, and responded by not allowing a single earned run in his final eight appearances, picking up four saves along the way. His dominance continued into the postseason before a major hiccup in game three of the ALCS, but two nights later, he was on the mound for the last out as the Yanks clinched their first pennant since 2009.
On Weaver’s last pitch, which was lazily flied to right field to clinch the series for the Yanks, the same subtle leg kick was deployed, the one he helped generate after watching Yamamoto. The Dodgers’ game two starter is much quicker to get into his leg motion and move towards the plate, but the leg lift is nearly just as subtle as Weaver, who made his own tweaks to find the delivery that worked best for him.
But the change didn’t happen until he watched his World Series counterpart, and now, he will try to help take down the pitcher who played a part in resurrecting his career from afar.
“He was a leg kick guy. He changed and kind of simplified it himself. It just became about, ‘How is he doing it? How is he getting to those physical spots in his mechanics? Do they work for me?’” Weaver explained.
“That all kind of turned into ‘OK, thank you for the template, now I have to figure out, what’s me?’ It was just solid, subtle information out of him just by watching.”