The Marlins announced that left-hander Ryan Weathers has been placed on the 60-day injured list due to a lat strain. Righty Eury Pérez has been reinstated from the 60-day IL, as was reported last week. Isaac Azout of Fish on First reported on Weathers prior to the official announcement.
It’s an unfortunate development for Weathers, who has had a stop-and-start career with his flashes of promise usually proving to be brief. A seventh overall pick of the Padres, he was once a top 100 prospect but struggled in his first tastes of the majors. He had a 5.73 earned run average through his first 143 big league innings when the Marlins traded for him in 2023.
In Miami, he showed some hints of a breakthrough last year. He logged 86 2/3 innings over 16 starts with a 3.63 ERA. His 21.8% strikeout rate was around average, while his 6.5% walk rate and 46.6% ground ball rate were both strong marks. Unfortunately, injuries capped the overall workload. A strain in his left index finger sent him to the IL in June and it took him over three months to return, with his final three starts occurring in September.
This year, injuries have interfered again. In mid-March, he suffered a forearm strain that sent him to the IL to start the year. He was reinstated from the IL and put up some decent numbers, with a 3.28 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 40.6% ground ball rate in five starts this year. Unfortunately, he’s now on the shelf again. The specifics of the injury are still lacking but the fact that he’s been quickly placed on the 60-day IL after just starting on Saturday doesn’t bode well.
The move will seemingly remove any chance of Weathers being a summer trade candidate, as he will be on the shelf past the deadline. Players on the IL can be traded but it wouldn’t make much sense for the Marlins to flip him when his value is low. He can be retained via arbitration for three seasons after this one. The silver lining of the injury absences, for the Marlins, is that he won’t be able to increase his salary very much.
The Fish will have other opportunities to trade him in the future, ideally after he has shown a strong run of health to build value. Or perhaps Weathers can be a part of a competitive club in Miami, depending on how long this ongoing rebuild takes to bear fruit.
For now, the Marlins will proceed without Weathers in the rotation. Pérez jumps into a group that includes Sandy Alcantara, Cal Quantrill and Edward Cabrera, with guys like Valente Bellozo also in the mix. Max Meyer is on the IL himself but his hip impingement seems minor and he could be back shortly.
With the club sporting a 24-39 record that has them ahead of only the Rockies in the National League, it’s expected that they will be broadly open to trades. In recent years, players like Luis Arráez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jesús Luzardo have been sent out of town even with years of club control remaining. As mentioned, Weathers is far less likely to be moved now, though he will ideally be able to jump back into the rotation late in the year and build some more innings going into 2026.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images