It’s the first save chance that Weaver has had since taking over the closer’s role from Devin Williams and he made it look extremely easy — getting Chandler Simpson on a line drive to right before striking out Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero to end it. Weaver has yet to allow a run through his first 15 innings on the season while registering a 0.56 WHIP and a 16/5 K/BB ratio. For as long as he keeps the closer’s gig, he should be treated as one of the truly elite closers in the game.

With Devin Williams unavailable, Weaver stepped back into the ninth inning role and didn’t miss a beat, getting Brandon Lowe and Christopher Morel each on swinging third strikes before retiring Kameron Misner on a pop out to second base to end it. Weaver has been a major weapon out of the Yankees’ bullpen this season, firing 10 innings of shutout baseball with a 0.70 WHIP and an 11/5 K/BB ratio.

Weaver, who hadn’t pitched in a week, got the save chance tonight because Devin Williams is on the paternity list. Encouraging was that he averaged 94.4 mph with his fastball. That’s still down 1.3 mph from last season, but it’s a clear improvement over where he was this spring and in his season debut (93.4 mph).

Weaver’s velocity was again down about three mph in his third spring appearances. His hardest pitch today came in at 93.6 mph, which is rather discouraging from someone who averaged 95.7 mph with his fastball last season. We’ll have to wait and find out if he’s simply saving it for the regular season.