There's legitimate reason for Yankees fans to be excited about Ryan Weathers

We've been told for a while now that if the New York Yankees were going to land a starter to bolster the rotation, it would be via trade. We just thought it would be someone more notable than ... Ryan Weathers. And it could still be! But it's getting late early out there.

The trade for the former Miami Marlins southpaw caught most off guard. Weathers is just 26 years old and comes with a first-round pedigree, but despite those positives he's yet to reach the 100-inning plateau in a single season even though he's pitched in parts of five big league campaigns up to this point.

With four prospects somehow going back to Miami in exchange for his services (thanks, pitching market), it's easy to look at this as an overpay. Moreover, he does little to satisfy the fans' desire for Freddy Peralta or even MacKenzie Gore.

These are all legitimate gripes; however, according to The Athletic's Chris Kirschner, the deal for Weathers doesn't take the Yankees out of the running for Peralta.

In the meantime, there are some legitimate reasons to not just begrudgingly accept Weathers as the newest-minted Yankee, but to actually be excited.

Yankees fans have legitimate reason to be excited about Ryan Weathers

Over the years, Weathers has transformed his fastball from typical lefty fare, sitting in the 93 miles per hour range, to a real high-octane offering. His average fastball velocity last season set a career-high at 96.8 miles per hour, and when needed he can reach back and put even more mustard on the ball.

That's good velo for anyone, especially a lefty, but his fastball is actually his worst offering. Data on his secondary offerings compiled by MLBpitchprofiler.com and shared on Twitter/X should have you drooling.

As you can see, his second-most commonly used pitch other than his fastball is a changeup that ranks slightly above average by the proStuff+ model. That change plays up off of his heater and generated a ridiculous 41.1% whiff rate.

From there, Weathers has a pair of breaking balls led by an 83.8 miles per hour sweeper with good horizontal movement and a harder, tighter slider that comes in at 89.8 miles per hour on average. The sweeper is where we start to see the stuff really separate itself, and it also generated a ton of whiffs coming in at 39.1%.

The slider was sparingly used, with Weathers turning to it just 3.6% of the time, but the 110 proStuff+ mark on the pitch is an elite number and something to watch moving forward.

Others have taken note, as well. The Athletic's Eno Sarris plotted out the progress in velocity and ride on Weathers' fastball over the years, though he questioned the max-effort approach and how it may have contributed to his injury issues over the past two seasons. The flip side, that Sarris notes in the comments, is that a move to the bullpen could allow him to continue that approach and keep him healthy. With his kind of stuff, he could become a high-leverage lefty reliever, checking off a couple of boxes for the Yankees and providing an outstanding complement to the soft-tossing Tim Hill.

To date, Weathers has posted a 4.93 ERA in his career over 281 innings. That's the kind of performance that you could pluck someone off the waiver wire and receive. However, the Yankees didn't make the trade because of what Weathers has done, but rather because of what he can do moving forward. If he stays healthy and harnesses his elite stuff, we might not be complaining about this move in a few months.