The Astros have assigned right-hander Jordan Weems outright to Triple-A Sugar Land, according to the transactions tracker on Weems’s MLB.com profile page. Weems was designated for assignment earlier this week to make room for Tayler Scott on the club’s active roster.
The 32-year-old righty has pitched in parts of six MLB seasons at this point in his career. A third-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2011, Weems actually began his pro career as a catcher before converting to the mound in 2016. He reached Triple-A as a pitcher in 2019 with the Red Sox but struggled badly in eight appearances before electing minor league free agency and joining the A’s organization. He made his big league debut during the shortened 2020 campaign with Oakland and pitched quite well in nine appearances with a 3.21 ERA and a 31.0% strikeout rate in 14 innings of work.
That strong performance during the 60-game campaign was cause for optimism about Weems’s future, but he’s mostly been relegated to an up-and-down role in the years since then. He posted a 6.55 ERA across the next two seasons with Oakland, Arizona, and Washington but settled in with D.C. and stuck around there for the 2023 campaign. That turned out to be a career year for Weems, as he posted a 3.62 ERA in 51 middle relief appearances for the Nationals with a solid 25.9% strikeout rate. He was held back by a lackluster 12.1% walk rate, however, and underlying metrics like FIP (4.90) were far less impressed with his performance.
Weems stuck around with the Nats for the 2024 campaign, but it didn’t go nearly as well as the year prior. The right-hander was torched to the tune of a 6.70 ERA in 41 appearances. His strikeout rate plummeted to just 17.9% while his 12.2% walk rate actually ticked up slightly from the year prior. That brutal season left Weems to sign with Atlanta on a minor league deal this past offseason, but he posted a 5.09 ERA in 17 2/3 innings of work for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett before being released back in May. He’s been in the Astros organization ever since and has made two brief cameos on the major league roster where he’s surrendered seven runs on nine hits and three walks without recording a strikeout in 4 1/3 innings of work.
Brutal as those brief cups of coffee in the majors have been, Weems has actually looked quite good while pitching for Sugar Land. He’s posted a 3.06 ERA in 17 2/3 innings of work with a solid 24.3% strikeout rate and a more manageable 9.5% walk rate. While work at Triple-A only goes so far for a 32-year-old journeyman, the fact that he’s done all of this while pitching in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League does lend further legitimacy to his strong performance. Now that Weems has been outrighted to Triple-A, he’ll likely continue serving as a depth option for the Astros who can be called upon when there’s a gap in the roster, as was the case in each of his two call-ups to Houston this year.