Adam Samrov

The start of the 2026 season has not been a great one for the Boston Red Sox's middle relief corps, but especially not for Greg Weissert. In eight appearances this season, Weissert has given up homers in three of them -- including a three-run homer in the sixth inning against Eugenio Suarez and a solo shot from Elly De La Cruz in the opening series against the Cincinnati Reds. The last homer he allowed was a three-run shot by Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres, turning a one-run lead into a two-run deficit en route to the team's 8-6 loss. From his deep arsenal, the changeup and slider have been the weak links, with hitters going 3-for-5 off the former specifically. The De La Cruz homer, a shot with an exit velocity of almost 107 mph, came off the slider. He’s cut down the time he’s throwing the slider roughly in half compared to last year, often choosing to throw a sweeper in those spots. The sweeper is used 18 percent of the time, predominantly to right-handed hitters, who struggle to pick the ball up coming across the plate. The slider is down from 16 percent use rate in 2025 to only 9 percent in 2026. The sinker and the four-seamer are Weissert’s strongest pitches so far in the 2026 season, holding batters to a 2-for-16 (.125) effort, the only blemish the homer by Suarez, who had 49 round-trippers a year ago for the Mariners and Diamondbacks. Combined, he is throwing those two pitches more than 50 percent of the time he’s on the mound. After the game, Weissert blamed the Suarez blast on bad execution: "Maybe I threw one too many fastballs to him facing him [yesterday and today],” Weissert told Christopher Smith of Masslive.com. “But you can nitpick. If he pops it up, it’s a great outing. If you do what you do, he does what he does, it’s a bad one.” Everything is magnified in the first couple weeks of the season, records included, but even more so for relievers. But there's signs that the tide is turning for Weissert, who helped Italy reach the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic this spring. In his past three outings, Weissert has pitched 2.2 innings, allowing only one hit, striking out three and walking one. In that time period, he's inherited three base runners but none have scored and his ERA is down from 9.64 to 6.14. He also has three holds, for any old-school fans that still value handling pressure in non-save situations. Most importantly, though, he’s throwing first pitch strikes nearly 70 percent of the time, which would be the best mark of his career. So far this season, Weissert has entered in either the fifth, sixth or seventh innings, a role he appears likely to maintain throughout 2026. The Red Sox need guys like Weissert, Ryan Watson and Jovani Moran to be that bridge between the starters and the back-end of the bullpen with Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, and eventually Justin Slaten as they try to dig out of their early hole in the American League East. View full article