Padres sign right-hander Ryan Weiss to 1-year deal with option for 2028

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres have signed right-handed pitcher Ryan Weiss to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2028 season, President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller announced on Tuesday. The addition brings a veteran minor-league and international experience to San Diego’s pitching mix as the club continues its offseason roster construction.

Weiss, 29, spent the 2026 campaign in the Houston Astros organization, appearing in 9 games for the major league club and 22 games for Triple-A Sugar Land. In his final stretch of the season, he delivered strong relief and spot-start work, finishing with a 1.37 ERA over his final 19.2 innings pitched. Across four games in September (three starts), he struck out 24 batters and walked five, including 8.1 scoreless innings on a career-high 98 pitches—71 of them for strikes—in his Sept. 18 outing against the Las Vegas team in the month’s final stretch.

Through parts of six minor league seasons, Weiss owns a 22-19 record with a 4.99 ERA over 389.2 innings (216 earned runs), along with a 1.45 WHIP and 366 strikeouts to 144 walks. The Padres’ signing places him in a role that could include bullpen depth, additional starting options, or developmental innings depending on how the club plans its rotation and relief corps for 2027.

Weiss made his Major League debut in 2026 against the Los Angeles Angels on March 27, and he reached Opening Day roster status earlier in the season. In that debut, he logged 1.0 inning, allowing two hits and one run while issuing a walk and recording two strikeouts. Over his first three career games, the team’s announcement says he allowed just one run across 6.0 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts, and he completed each of those early appearances.

In 2026, Weiss recorded a 7.62 ERA (22 earned runs, 26.0 innings) across nine outings, including two starts, with the club noting that he threw more than 1.0 inning in each of his last eight appearances for Houston that year. The contract now gives San Diego a pitcher with recent experience moving between roster roles and working through late-season usage.

Weiss was originally drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fourth round of the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft. He spent his first five professional seasons within Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals minor league systems before moving through international and independent opportunities. The Padres’ announcement says he spent time in the Independent Atlantic League in 2023 and 2024, the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2023, and the KBO League from 2024 to 2025.

In the KBO League, Weiss posted a 3.16 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP and 305 strikeouts to 85 walks across 46 starts for the Hanwha Eagles, according to the team. The organization also cited a career-best KBO season in 2025, when Weiss went 16-5 with a 2.87 ERA over 178.2 innings in 30 starts, collecting 207 strikeouts. He finished that KBO season ranked third in innings and wins and fourth in strikeouts, positioning his international performance as a key part of his pro résumé.

With the one-year deal and club option for 2028, the contract gives the Padres flexibility for 2027 roster planning while retaining the option to extend Weiss’s tenure if they choose to do so following the 2027 season.

The signing was announced by A.J. Preller, and the published details establish Weiss’s recent Major League and Triple-A workload with the Astros organization, along with his earlier development path through MLB farm systems and professional leagues in multiple countries.