Mets Hopping on the Luke "Dream" Weaver Train

"I've just closed my eyes again

Climbed aboard the Dream Weaver train

Driver, take away my worries of today

And leave tomorrow behind"

Gary Wright 1975

Yesterday it was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” Today it’s Gary Wright’s Dream Weaver. That’s quite a musical pattern we’ve got going here—my apologies for the earworm.

Not sure how many Mets fans were dreaming about signing Luke Weaver this offseason. If your REM sleep visions were more “Cody Bellinger” and less “another reliever from the Yankees,” you might be feeling a little let down right now. But hey, dreams are funny things they don’t always come true the way you expect. And hey, Cody is still out there.

The Mets have reportedly agreed to a two-year, $22 million deal with Luke Weaver, pending a physical. While Weaver isn’t the big, sexy (there is a comma there, folks—no, Bartolo is not coming back) splash some fans might have been dreaming of, he’s a solid addition to the bullpen. And while maybe not the headline-grabbing move we were waiting for, it is still part of the process—and with the offseason just getting underway, this is a nice piece for the pen.

Luke Weaver, 32, has bounced around Major League Baseball so much that you needed an Apple AirTag to keep track of his whereabouts—stints with the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Royals, Reds, Mariners, and Yankees before landing in New York’s bullpen. A first-round pick by St. Louis in 2014 out of Florida State, Weaver made his MLB debut in 2016. He struggled as a starter at times, which sent him on a multi-city tour of teams searching for pitching stability, before finally finding a niche as a reliever.

 As a starter, his numbers were, well… inconsistent. Over 10 major league seasons, he’s posted a 4.74 ERA in 723 innings with 723 strikeouts (fun coincidence, right?), and a career WHIP of 1.42. Not exactly Cy Young material, but solid enough to keep hitters honest.

The magic seems to happen when Weaver slides into a bullpen role. In 2024 with the Yankees, he converted into a late-inning reliever, logging 62 games, 84 innings, and a 2.89 ERA with 103 strikeouts versus only 26 walks. That’s a strikeout rate of roughly 11 per nine innings—a strong sign he can miss bats when he’s in shorter stints. And in 2025, he followed that up with 64+ innings, a 3.62 ERA, 72 strikeouts, and eight saves.

Luke Weaver’s raw numbers give you a glimpse, but the advanced metrics tell the real story of what he could bring to the Mets bullpen. Over the last two seasons as a full-time reliever with the Yankees, Weaver has been striking out over 11 batters per nine innings while keeping walks under 8%. That combination—high strikeouts, low walks—is exactly what you want from a late-inning arm. His ERA ticked up from 2.89 in 2024 to 3.62 in 2025, but that’s still solid considering the high-leverage situations he’s been trusted with.

Statcast backs it up: his fastball averages 95 mph, complemented by a sharp changeup and a cutter, both of which have above-average run values compared to league norms. Lefties aren’t exactly sleeping on him—he’s used his fastball about 58% of the time against them—but he’s mixing in offspeed pitches effectively to keep hitters off balance. His whiff rate sits at an impressive 31%, and his strike percentage on swings outside the zone is in the 91st percentile, meaning he can make batters chase.

Other numbers to like: he’s limiting barrels (8.3% in 2025) and hard-hit balls (just under 40%), showing he’s not giving up easy contact. That’s huge in a bullpen that sometimes struggles to prevent base runners from turning into runs. His xERA of 2.98 and xBA of .195 indicate the underlying metrics are even better than his surface ERA, suggesting some luck went against him at times—good news for the Mets.

The numbers also show he has limits—his career home run rate is 1.7 HR/9, and past struggles as a starter show he’s best in controlled doses. But in the role the Mets envision, Weaver’s mix of strikeouts, experience, and late-inning polish could stabilize a bullpen that’s been searching for consistency.

In short, Weaver isn’t just a veteran arm—they’re getting a guy who can punch hitters out, avoid walks, and handle high-pressure innings without losing his cool. For a bullpen looking for stability and strikeout upside, he’s a strong addition.

For the Mets, the takeaway is clear: Weaver isn’t here to eat innings like a starter. He’s here to keep the late innings clean, bridging the gap to the back end of the bullpen. He’s not flashy, he’s not going to light up the highlight reels, but he’s exactly the type of mid- to high-leverage arm that turns close games into manageable ones.

There’s also another interesting layer to the Luke Weaver signing, and Mets fans will recognize it immediately. Since 2020, the Mets have quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) become a second home for former Yankees. Some arrived with fanfare, others with a whimper, and a few with “Wait…he played for them?” reactions.

Juan Soto is the obvious headline act, but he’s hardly alone. Harrison Bader made the Bronx-to-Queens commute. So did Adam Ottavino, Dellin Betances, Robinson Canó, Luis Severino, Gary Sánchez, Cameron Maybin, Billy McKinney, Todd Frazier, and a grab bag of others who’ve worn pinstripes before discovering Citi Field has much better pastrami. Some worked out. Some absolutely did not.

That history doesn’t mean Weaver is destined for greatness—or disaster—but it does add a familiar wrinkle. The Mets have shown they’re more than willing to mine the Yankees’ leftovers, especially arms, if they believe the underlying numbers say there’s still something there. In Weaver’s case, those numbers suggest a pitcher who figured something out in the Bronx, particularly in a bullpen role.

And that’s where the current Mets bullpen picture comes into focus.

Devin Williams is the closer. That’s locked. The two lefty anchors—A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley—are locked in as well. Walker gives you another right-handed option, and beyond that the 40-man roster is a mix-and-match puzzle: righties like Huascar Brazobán, Alex Carrillo, Cooper Criswell, and Dylan Ross, plus lefties Richard “Don’t Call Me Dicky” Lovelady and Brandon Waddell.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the final bullpen shakes out, but if you’re starting with a core of Williams, Minter, Raley, and now Weaver, that’s not a bad foundation at all. It may not be flashy. It may not win the offseason headlines. But it’s a bullpen beginning to look like it has a plan—and for Mets fans, that alone counts as progress.

Ooh, Dream Weaver

I believe you can get me through the night

Gary Wright 1975

In this case just us to the Ninth and Met fans will be happy.