The Yankees didn’t do much in the way of new addition over this past offseason. The most notable move they made was the signing of Cody Bellinger, but he of course already spent last season in the Bronx. In terms of new pieces, the most notable was the trade for pitcher Ryan Weathers.
The son of former Yankee David, Weathers was coming off two solid seasons with the Marlins, but was far from a marquee acquisition. It mostly seemed like he was depth in both the rotation and bullpen. Well, you shouldn’t judge too much on one spring training game, but it appears he’s actually the Cy Young favorite. To be serious, Weathers looked very impressive in his first outing as a Yankee, as he struck out five Nationals’ batters in his 3.2 innings.
Meanwhile on offense, the Yankees ran out a lineup that only included a couple likely 2026 big leaguers, but they still did the job. Washington chipped in by making three errors in total, as the Yankees cruised to a 7-0 victory on Wednesday night.
The Yankees got the game started on a nice note. After Weathers threw an easy 1-2-3 top of the first, Amed Rosario took the first pitch he saw from Andrew Alvarez out to right for a lead-off homer. An inning later, JC Escarra singled on a slow roller that catcher Keibert Ruiz couldn’t handle. The Nats’ defense got a little farcical after that, as an Alvarez error and a wild pitch later allowed Escarra to come around and score.
On the mound, Weathers looked about as good as you could hope in both his first outing of the spring and first as a Yankee. He ended up throwing 49 pitches over 3.2 innings. He allowed just one hit and no walks, while striking out five and looking downright nasty at points.
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Some more shoddy defense allowed the Yankees to tack on three more runs in the fourth inning. Non-roster invite Jonathan Ornelas chipped in with one RBI single, but another two runs scored after former #2 draft pick Dylan Crews made an error on a Rosario batted ball.
Having made a nice defensive play at third base in the top of the fifth, top prospect George Lombard Jr. then flashed some offense in the bottom half of the inning. With two runners on, he took a ball into the gap in left-center field, bringing home both runners for a two-RBI double.
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Prospective closer David Bednar was one of the notable names of the bullpen for the Yankees in this one. He came in and threw a fairly easy 1-2-3 inning, but did get some help from the aforementioned nice defensive play from Lombard. Fernando Cruz replaced him in the sixth, and he looked very good, striking out the side in a perfect inning. Tim Hill rounded things out for the regulars by striking out one batters in an easy inning of his own.
Add in the innings from the prospects and non-roster guys, and the Yankees allowed just one hit in total on the night. The only baserunner they allowed was a hit off Weathers, which was then erased by a double play. In total, the Yankees only faced the minimum possible 27 batters.
Tomorrow, the Yankees will be back in action as they host the Braves at Steinbrenner Field at 1:05 pm ET. Following up on an impressive outing in his spring debut, pitching prospect Elmer Rodríguez will take the mound again in this one.
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