How do the Angels fix Jered Weaver? That’s the question every Angels fan wants to know. Heck, that’s what the Angels and Weaver themselves want to know. The one-time ace is broken, perhaps irretrievably so. His velocity is gone and so is his effectiveness. Given his contract and stature on the roster and among the fans, the Angels simply have to find a way to get Weaver back to being at least decent again. But how are they going to do that?
BANISH HIM TO THE BULLPEN
This is usually the go-to option for a struggling starter, but it is doubtful that Weaver would benefit from it (or like it very much). The problem is that Weaver’s stuff isn’t the kind of stuff that usually plays up in the bullpen. He’s all about deception, not blowing you away with velocity and stuff. If he needs a confidence boost, there are other options that don’t include him going at max effort for three outs only to find out that he still can’t break 87 MPH.
THE PHANTOM INJURY
Weaver can’t really be demoted (well, technically he can, but it is complicated) nor would he much care for that degree of public shaming. He’s far too proud. However, the Angels need to send him somewhere to work out his issues where he won’t harm the team in the process. It sure would be convenient if he suddenly developed “back spasms” or “biceps tendinitis” so that the Angels had cause to send him to the minors on a rehab assignment (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
They’ve gone that route with other struggling pitchers, so it isn’t as if the Angels are averse to such a maneuver. What might complicate this bit of chicanery is that Weaver just came out the other day to say that he definitely isn’t injured. If MLB or MLBPA wanted to call BS on Weaver’s alleged injury, that statement from Jered could come back to haunt them.
MIX IT UP
As previously mentioned, Weaver has thrived for years on his deception. We all know that he’s been losing velocity, but what might not be apparent is that the velocity loss has also hurt his deception. His not-so-hot heater was essential to him setting up all his other pitches, most notably his formerly effective changeup. I say “formerly” because his changeup isn’t working anymore.
His changeup had never once had a pitch value below 2.0 in a season, but, so far in 2015, his change piece is rating at an ugly -4.8. Ew, gross.
It doesn’t look as if the changeup itself got worse so much as the fastball that set it up for years has. His fastball has dropped off by nearly four miles per hour while his changeup has shed just 0.8 MPH in the process. That gives him an average separation of less than seven miles per hour from his four-seamer with even smaller gaps between the changeup and his two-seamer and cutter.
What hasn’t changes with Weaver’s velocity though is his pitch mix. His usage of his fastballs, changeup, curve and slider have only seen minor fluctuations the last few years.
There has been a lot of talk about Weaver needing to reinvent himself his last few starts. If that is the route he wants to go, he will want to start with his pitch mix. His fastball simply isn’t good enough to pitch off of it anymore. How exactly he mixes it up remains to be seen. It isn’t like Jered was throwing 80% fastballs or anything. I wouldn’t call him a junkballer, but he’s pretty close to it. Throwing more changeups, curves and sliders isn’t the answer. His cutter and two-seamer look to be the weakest of the raw offerings, so maybe what he needs to do is scale back on those and rely more heavily on his four-seamer like he did early in his career.
Given his diminished velocity that might seem counter-intuitive, but it isn’t like what he’s doing now is working either as he’s giving up more hard hit balls than ever before.
CHANGE OF SCENERY
Relax, I’m not suggesting a trade. I have more respect for Weaver than that and so do the Angels. (Also, who would trade for him?) He does need to change location though. Weaver has made a career out of being one of the few pitchers in the league who can attack hitters up in the zone. Below you’ll see Weaver’s ability to limit power output on high pitches from 2012 through 2014:
He can still get touched up, but not much more than he would elsewhere in the zone. And this isn’t even peak Weaver we are talking about.
Fast forward to 2015 and suddenly we have ourselves a problem:
GAH!!! Jered is getting hurt in other parts of the zone, but the biggest issue is definitely in the upper third. This is a small sample, but it is pretty evident that he just isn’t fooling anyone with the high fastballs like he used to. Since he’s clearly not missing bats anymore, he needs to own up to his need to pitch to contact even more than he already does. But he needs to pitch to weak contact like a normal pitcher and that means learning to keep the ball down in the zone.
THE JOSH HAMILTON OPTION
OK, now you can freak out at me. As Weaver continues to show no real sign of improvement, the Angels have to at least consider releasing him or trading him and a vast majority of his contract elsewhere. He’s just using up space and hurting the team so if there is no other way to fix him or clear him out of the way so that a potentially useful starter like Tropeano or Heaney can take his place, well, then he’s got to go.
That’s cold. That’s brutal. I don’t think there is any way the Angels would truly consider that option during the 2015 season, but if they exhaust all other options, keeping him on the roster and in the rotation because he’s a local boy made good is a pretty lousy way to run a baseball team.
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