BOSTON — Yankees pitcher Ryan Weathers mentioned to NJ.com last week that he was going to become a first-time father any day with his wife almost nine months pregnant.
Three days after Weathers picked up his first Yankees win, he left the team on Wednesday for paternity leave.
Ryan and Thayer Weathers married on Nov. 6, 2022 in Georgetown, Tenn.
The Yankees called up reliever Jake Bird from Triple-A to take Weathers’ spot on the 26-man roster.
MLB players are permitted to be away for a maximum of three days for the birth of a child. If Weathers uses all three days, he’d be back in time to make his next scheduled start on Saturday in Houston.
If Weathers’ throwing program and prep work this week is disrupted too much for the Yankees’ liking, they could push him back a day and start one of their two long relievers on Saturday, left-hander Ryan Yarbrough or righty Paul Blackburn.
In Yarbrough’s last outing, he threw 37 pitches while being lit up for four runs over 2 1/3 innings in last Thursday’s 11-4 loss to the Angels. For the season, he has a 5.63 ERA over five appearances.
Blackburn is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in six games. In his last outing, he threw 32 pitches allowing two runs over two innings closing out last Saturday’s 13-4 win over KC.
Weathers, 26, is 1-2 with a 3.18 ERA in five starts. He allowed one run in his first and fourth starts, then pitched 7.1 scoreless innings in last Sunday’s 7-0 win over the Royals that awarded him a first victory as a Yankee.
The son of David Weathers, a reliever who was on the Yankees’ 1996 World Series championship team, Ryan was traded by the Marlins to New York on Jan. 13.
Bird is back with the Yankees eight days after he was optioned on April 14 with a 7.71 ERA in eight games. In seven innings, the righty allowed six runs on nine hits with nine strikeouts and one walk.
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This poor start to the season followed his horrific three-outing cameo with the Yankees last August. After being traded by the Rockies on Jan. 31, Bird was farmed out after being shelled for seven runs, six earned, in two innings.
Since his recent demotion to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Byrd faced four batters on two games and retired them all, two via strikeouts.
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