LI's Greg Weissert bounced back after nightmarish Yankees debut

TAMPA, Fla. — Greg Weissert laughed the very next day after what he called “my nightmare.”

And he did so again Thursday while reflecting on the experience.

It took place Aug. 25, 2022, the date of his big-league debut.

Weissert, 28, who went to Bay Shore High School and was taken by the Yankees in the 18th round of the 2016 draft, finally was on a major league mound after slogging in the minors for six seasons (there would have been a seventh if not for the COVID-19 pandemic that wiped out the 2020 minor-league season).

And while the outing against the A’s in Oakland could have gone worse, it couldn’t have been much worse. Weissert, coming on for the seventh inning, faced five batters, walked three of them, hit one and committed a balk, recording all of one out before Aaron Boone mercifully pulled him. He allowed three earned runs for an 81.00 ERA.

“It was probably the biggest nightmare you could have after all those years of grinding and playing in the minor leagues, working to that point and that’s how it starts off?” Weissert said with a smile Thursday after a workout at Steinbrenner Field. “I knew it wasn’t a stuff thing or anything, it was just me getting sped up. So I didn’t lose my confidence in my stuff or anything like that, it was just about kind of laughing it off. I was nervous. There’s no way around it.”

Weissert was consoled on the bench that night by many of his teammates as well as Boone and the coaching staff.

After the outing, which Boone called “a rough one,” the manager said his goal was to get Weissert in another game as quickly as possible.

“You run to it and try and get him back out there in another situation, because his stuff will play,” Boone said.

And it did three days later when Weissert took the same Coliseum mound and struck out three in two perfect innings.

In the days before that Aug. 28 game, Weissert, whose ever-improving slider had stood out to rival scouts in the minors the previous two seasons, applied some pressure on himself.

“It was being like, ‘Next time out, your back’s against the wall,’ ” he said. “That’s how I felt, like I have to show something here. I have to throw well this next outing. Putting that pressure on myself in a way that wasn’t negative but a little bit more like a motivating thing for me and saying, ‘This is it. It’s probably your only other shot to show what you can do.’ ”

He did that down the stretch and finished 2022 strong, allowing one earned run, three hits and three walks with four strikeouts in six innings in his last eight appearances.

It put Weissert in consideration for a bullpen spot for the 2022 postseason — which he did not get — but bigger picture, very much into the discussion entering spring training as a possibility to make the club out of camp.

“Just really trying to not look ahead like that because . . . I’ve learned that stuff just kind of turns out consuming you instead of helping you,” Weissert said. “So I try to be where my feet are a little bit and just take it a day at a time.”

Before camp, Boone talked about “a lot of good, exciting arms that could make a name for themselves at the big-league level” this season, and Weissert is very much included in that group.

Weissert, who has allowed a walk and no hits and struck out two in two spring training outings, said even though he arrived in the majors last season with confidence, ending the season the way he did only increased that belief in himself.

Nightmarish debut aside, of course.

“There’s always going to be that doubt, so yeah, having a little bit of success definitely gives you a little bit of confidence,” Weissert said. “We all trust our stuff and have confidence in here, but it’s one thing to think it and believe it but another thing to go out there and do it and see it. So I think having the little bit of success that I had was definitely confidence-boosting for me to know that OK, I can do this.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.