PORT ST. LUCIE — Luke Weaver has a real dilemma on his hands. The right-handed reliever knows he has a reputation in New York. The Yankees’ run to the World Series in 2024 helped showcase Weaver’s personality as much as it showcased his improved pitching repertoire. Now, across town with the Mets, he’s worried that if he gives up all of his best comedy material right away, he’ll be ill-equipped to make people laugh the rest of the season.
“I have to make sure I’m not being too funny too quick,” Weaver told the Daily News this week at Clover Park. “We want loose, good energy, we want to make sure we’re smiling. That breaks up the trouble that falls sometimes throughout a season, and kind of keeps you afloat.”
It’s a long season, so Weaver simply cannot run out of jokes too early. What would he do if he runs out of material?
“He’s got a fun way about him,” said right-hander Clay Holmes, a former bullpen mate of Weaver’s in the Bronx. “He’s got a big personality, and I think everybody knows that, so it’s like, ‘OK, you can just be yourself.’ It’s him making sure he’s comfortable, letting Luke be Luke…
“But he’s definitely got some spunk to him.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza has long preached to his players that he wants them to be themselves. Even going back before Mendoza, the Mets, under Steve Cohen’s ownership, have embraced the weird, wacky and wild ways they differ vastly from the corporate, buttoned-up Yankees.
When catcher Francisco Alvarez was a jubilant rookie celebrating his big home runs while rounding the bases, the Mets made it clear that they weren’t going to stifle his enthusiasm, and they didn’t feel he was doing anything to disrespect the game. The next season, there was Grimace and OMG. The team came together for a postgame performance on the field, dancing right along with Jose Iglesias.
The overall philosophy is this: If everyone is comfortable with who they are and what they bring to the Mets, the Mets will get the best of everyone on the team.
“Man, when you’re in a clubhouse where people feel super comfortable and super accepted, that’s when you kind of really see you get the most out of people,” Holmes said. “It doesn’t just happen, I think there’s definitely some intentionality behind it, making people feel like, ‘Hey, you can just be yourself because that’s really all we need — we need the best version of you.’ I think you can sense that this year. People are saying we’re kind of all in this together, so be yourself, look out for others, and let’s kind of see where this goes.”
Weaver wasn’t this outgoing when he first arrived in New York as a waiver claim in 2023. A former first-round pick, the Florida State product hadn’t been able to stick in the big leagues. He had been designated for assignment twice already that season, had been a starter and a reliever, and had tried working in new pitches and making adjustments on his pitch usage.
The Yankees helped him get more ride on his fastball, and a move to the bullpen allowed him to throw it harder.
As he saw more success on the mound, he started opening up more off of it.
“I remember when Luke showed up at the end of 2023 when the Yankees claimed him. The guy he was then was very different from the guy he was when I left there,” Holmes said. “In the same sense, he was probably easing his way in.”
Weaver posted a 3.22 ERA with the Yankees from 2023-2025 with 12 saves and a 3.65 FIP. When the Mets needed another high-leverage arm over the winter, they looked to Weaver for several reasons — the fastball, the character and the ability to keep working to figure out answers.
“He’s had to work really hard,” Mendoza said. “He was DFA-ed, given an opportunity, and now here he is being one of the [main] guys. He’s hungry. He’s always looking for ways to get better.”
One of the ways Weaver is looking to get better this season is by making an adjustment to his cutter to get more break on it. The way he describes it is that his fastball and changeup are the “main actors,” and the cutter is a “supporting character.” He’s writing a bigger role for his cutter into the script of the 2026 season.
“I’ve been messing around with movements on that to essentially create a stronger weapon that gives me something that takes stress off of my two main pitches,” he said. “In 2024, the cutter was big. Last year? Not so much, really. So it really just became a movement thing, and something I’ve been working on to try to kind of get back and to find something that feels confident and feels like it can be a nice supportive pitch.”
Hopefully, he’s written some jokes into the script as well.
“Being too funny too right away means I have to live up to those expectations,” Weaver said. “Expectations are set really high already.”
