A PCL All-Star in his first full season at the Triple-A level, Weaver is pounding the table to be recalled to St. Louis to help the big club in the second half. While Weaver has once again shown plus control and solid average command, his improved slider and the feel he’s now showing with the changeup are inspiring signs that he will be able to knock back the high contact rates that plagued him in his 2016, when he gave up 11.4 H/9 in his first taste of the big leagues. He currently sits at 6.6 H/9 through 56 Triple-A innings in 2017, his lowest mark of any pro stop where he’s thrown more than 20 innings. In years past, Weaver has struggled to locate anything to the glove side – his crossfire delivery, while adding deception, works against his ability to extend, and the slider (until recently) lacked much depth and has played as more of a cutter. While his misses still tend to be to the arm side and the breaking balls will back up on him at times, the slider he ‘s presently throwing features greater depth and late bite, giving him a weapon that is off the usual plane of his heater. While consistency is still an issue, he is overmatching Triple-A bats, and will soon need to test his adjustments at the next level.

This is not to say that Weaver’s success depends solely on the slider — he still has a 60-grade heater that sits in the middle 90s (T97), along with a 60-grade circle changeup that bottoms out and is a real weapon versus lefties. He is wirey strong and is a tremendous athlete, and while there is some effort in his delivery, he is able to throttle up and back well with a bit of an extra gear in big spots. The fly balls are still a bit of a concern (0.96 GO;AO), but Weaver is a strike thrower and doesn’t walk many (2.1 BB/9). If he can continue to improve his command to the glove side of the dish and miss a few more barrels, he should see the traffic on the bases clear up. Should that happen, the Cardinals could be looking at a guy capable of turning over a big league lineup more than a couple times and holding down a spot in the middle of that rotation.

Ed Note: Weaver was promoted to the Cardinals, and made his MLB Debut July 3, throwing a scoreless inning of relief while allowing two hits.