[SpoTV News = Reporter Seunghwan Park] With one contender for a rotation spot optioned to the minors, Ryan Weiss turned in another impressive performance Tuesday, further strengthening his case for a place in Houston’s starting rotation.
Weiss entered as the Astros’ fourth pitcher on March 10 (Korean time) at Cactus Park of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Fla., and delivered three strong innings. He threw 48 pitches, surrendered two hits and a walk, struck out six and allowed one earned run.
Weiss spent two seasons with the Hanwha Eagles, appearing in 46 games and going 21-10 with a 3.16 ERA before returning to MLB this offseason alongside Cody Ponce. He signed a one-year, $2.6 million guaranteed deal with the Houston Astros (about 3.9 billion KRW).
Houston plans to start the regular season with a six-man rotation to navigate a tough early slate, and Weiss is in the mix for one of those spots. He’s looked sharp to this point: in his first outing on Feb. 27 he tossed two scoreless innings against the New York Mets, and on March 4 he added two more scoreless innings with three strikeouts against Venezuela’s WBC team.
Weiss made another strong impression Tuesday. Though used out of the bullpen, he threw a lengthy three-inning relief stint. He entered the game in the top of the sixth with Houston leading 5-2 and started by fanning the leadoff hitter, Jeremy Rivas. After inducing a grounder to first for the second out, Weiss blew a 96.5-mph fastball (about 155.3 km) by César Salazar for his second strikeout of the appearance.
The only run he allowed came in his second inning of work, the seventh. Weiss began that frame by striking out the leadoff batter, but Luis Pino followed with a single and Nolan Gorman drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Weiss battled Jordan Walker to a nine-pitch at-bat and struck him out, but Nelson Velásquez followed with a run-producing hit.
Weiss settled in after that. He closed the inning by retiring Blaze Jordan on a fly ball, returned for the eighth and added two more strikeouts, and finished with three innings, one run allowed and his first spring hold.
If he keeps pitching like this, Weiss looks like a strong candidate to win the sixth-starter role. He hadn’t taken the mound in the Major Leagues before heading to the KBO; now he’s back in MLB and racing to see what role will let him achieve that goal.
