Luke Weaver

Position: RHP
Born: 8/21/1993
Height: 6' 2
Weight: 170
B/T: R/R
Acquired: Drafted in the first round (#27 overall) of the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft (STL).

Most Recent Stats at Time of Debut
CURRENT SEASON STATS: 7-3 with a 1.30 ERA in 13 starts between Springfield (Double-A) and Memphis (Triple-A), striking out 92 batters while walking 12 and allowing 65 hits in 83 IP.

Info & MLB Debut Date
Contract purchased from Memphis August 13 when OF Matt Holliday was placed on the 15-day DL.
MLB Debut Date: 8/13/2016

Debut Details
August 13, in an 8-4 win against the Cubs. The starting pitcher he did not get the decision, allowing two runs on four hits over four innings, walking three and striking out three. Of 85 pitches, 50 were for strikes. He struck out the first big-league batter he faced, Dexter Fowler, looking, and then struck out Kris Bryant swinging, collecting two of his three strikeouts on the first two batters he saw in the bigs. He then got Anthony Rizzo to ground out to first base for a quick first inning. In the second, Ben Zobrist got things started with a double to right field and scored on a two-run homer by Addison Russell to left. After Jason Heyward flew out to right field, Willson Contreras drew a walk and was joined on the bases by Javier Baez, who singled. Kyle Hendricks hit into a fielder’s choice but hit the ball right back to Weaver, who threw out Contreras at home to save the run. Though Fowler then walked to load the bases, Bryant’s groundout to shortstop ended the threat. In the third, Rizzo led off with a single but was erased when Zobrist grounded into a double play. Though Russell drew a walk, Heyward’s ground out to second base completed the inning. In the fourth, Contreras grounded out to first base and Baez did the second to second, before Hendricks struck out swinging to end Weaver’s evening. Fellow Cards debutante from this week, Alex Reyes, came on for the next three innings of one-hit shutout ball and was beneficiary of the win when the Cards piled on their runs towards the end of the game.

Player Notes
The promotion of Alex Reyes and pending promotion of Weaver were announced by the Cardinals basically simultaneously, even though Weaver’s debut was still four days away at the time, to the delight of any Cardinals fans who had been paying even the slightest bit of attention to what was going on in the minors. Here they had not one but two pitchers who could clock 100 mph at any given time. Weaver, who brings a 15-9 record and 1.78 career ERA in 38 starts into his first big league outing, has missed some time with a fractured left (non-pitching) wrist. But once Reyes, who was also a starter in the minors, made his debut out of the bullpen the night he was called up, it became obvious that it would be Weaver, at least for now, taking injured Michael Wacha’s spot in the rotation. Coming off an outing at the 2016 Futures Game, Weaver comes off a 2015, his first full season, in which he went 8-5 with a 1.62 ERA in 19 starts, fanning 88 and walking 19 in 105.1 IP.

2080 Notes
Like his teammate Reyes, Weaver also landed on 2080 Baseball’s Preseason Top 125 Prospect Rankings List, at #116, where we had this to say about him: “Weaver was highly productive in 2015 as he showed a plus fastball and a changeup that could get to plus with more development. His slider needs work but if it plays to average he can be a solid #4 starter.”