Red Sox reliever equipped with a sweeper slider and has been dominant over the last 16 outings
One of the reasons the Red Sox traded John Schreiber to the Royals during spring training was due to the acquisition of fellow reliever Greg Weissert in the offseason.
Boston landed Weissert, Richard Fitts, and tall right-hander Nicholas Judice from the Yankees in early December for outfielder Alex Verdugo.
Weissert, who looks very similar to Schreiber on the mound in terms of delivery and stuff, has been pretty dominant on the mound this season.
The 29-year-old leads the Red Sox in pitching appearances this season with 16. He has allowed just one or zero hits in 15 of his 16 outings. Over his last seven appearances, Weissert has tossed seven scoreless frames, giving up three hits with eight strikeouts.
The effective reliever’s success has been built off two pitches: a mid-90s sinker and a disgusting sweeper slider that sits in the low-80s. The right-hander has predominately tossed his sweeper and sinker while sprinkling in his four-seam fastball.
Weissert has thrown his sweeper 77 times, the pitch has sat at 79.1 mph, and he’s only given up three hits while striking out three hitters. Opponents are only hitting .214 with an expected batting average of .151. His sweeper/slider mix is effective because of his deceptive setup on the mound.
The 6-foot-2, 235-pound hurler ranks in the 93rd percentile in hard-hit percentage, the 91st percentile in barrel percentage, and the 96th percentile in xERA, according to Baseball Savant.
“Just a different angle with a great slider and a good fastball, too,” manager Alex Cora said about Weissert’s stuff this season. “He can get righties out. The thing I’m very happy with is getting lefties out. He’s done an outstanding job of using the slider. He can elevate. He’s got a good changeup, too.”
Weissert learned his slider in 2019 while in the Yankees organization. He was scrolling through Twitter/X and saw former reliever Chaz Roe showing his grip in the dugout in a video, and the righty liked the grip. In 2021, Baseball America wrote that Weissert’s slider was the best in the organization. His Baseball America scouting report noted he throws the pitch in the low-80s and “shows outstanding spin at nearly 2,800 rpms on average as well as an elite 19 inches of horizontal break.”
Weissert has been the Red Sox best reliever this season, with Brennan Bernardino being a close second. He owns a 1.17 ERA with a 0.91 WHIP with 16 strikeouts to three walks.
Early on, the Red Sox have banked on the growth of Weissert and traded Schreiber for a promising young starter, David Sandlin. Through the first quarter of the season, Weissert has been one of Cora’s most trusted relievers, in part due to his devastating sweeping slider.
