Padres Sign Ryan Weiss

The Padres are in agreement with free agent righty Ryan Weiss on a one-year contract with a club option for 2028, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Weiss, who is represented by Sports One Athlete Management, reached free agency when the Astros declined a $5MM club option in favor of a $500K buyout. The team subsequently announced the deal. Weiss is a depth add for a club that needs to rebuild its entire rotation. The Padres had eight vacancies on their 40-man roster and could afford to dedicate one to Weiss this early in the offseason. He’s hardly a lock to break camp next year, as he still has a minor league option and can bounce between San Diego and Triple-A El Paso. The 29-year-old Weiss is a former Diamondbacks draftee who spent time in the Arizona and Kansas City farm systems. He topped out at Triple-A with those clubs and made the move to Asia, spending the 2024-25 seasons with the Fubon Guardians in Taiwan and the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. Weiss pitched to a 3.16 ERA across 46 starts in the KBO to earn a $2.6MM contract from the Astros last offseason. That positioned the Wright State product to make his big league debut. Weiss struggled in his first look against MLB hitters, pitching to a near-8.00 ERA across 26 innings. He struck out a league average 23% of opponents but walked more than 15% of batters faced. Houston demoted him to Triple-A in early May and dropped him from their 40-man roster a month later. He cleared waivers and spent the rest of the season in the minors. Weiss worked in a swing role in the minors, starting 13 of 22 appearances. He pitched 76 1/3 innings of 5.42 ERA ball, posting a 20.7% strikeout rate while walking 11% of opponents. Weiss mixed five pitches, sitting around 95 mph with his four-seam fastball and at 93 mph with his sinker. He also threw a slider, changeup and very sporadically mixed in a curveball. It’s a similar move to the Padres’ signings of the likes of Kyle Hart, Griffin Canning, Germán Márquez and Lucas Giolito in recent years. Weiss can work multiple innings and compete for a rotation spot in Spring Training. He’s better served as a long reliever who slots no higher than seventh or eighth on a rotation depth chart. There’ll be plenty of bigger moves, but they’ll leverage their roster flexibility to make an early depth move. Weiss reportedly had renewed KBO interest, so a big league deal might’ve been the only way to keep him in affiliated ball. More to come. View Comments (4)