When Minnesota Twins Spring Training kicked off in February, Zack Weiss and Adam Plutko were not part of the Twins organization. Weiss was just five and a half miles from the Lee Health Sports Complex in camp with the Boston Red Sox, and Plutko was recovering from hip surgery following his second season in Korea pitching for the LG Twins.
Their paths appeared to be going in different directions for 2024. Still, following Weiss’ waiver claim on Feb. 7 and Plutko’s signing a Minor League deal with the Twins on May 3, these former UCLA teammates from 2011 to 2013 found themselves as teammates for the first time since going pro. It was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcomed one.
“I always laugh. He’s not even just an old college teammate. He’s a guy I talk to multiple times a week,” Plutko said about Weiss this season. “Truly my best friend in life, so to be here with him every single day is a blessing.”
“Adam’s obviously one of my best friends, somebody I’ve always leaned on for baseball advice,” Weiss said. “I’ve always leaned on Adam because I’ve always thought very highly of how well he’s approached baseball.”
The years of separation haven’t created any rust on the bits they started with each other as 19-year-olds when they became teammates at UCLA. Anytime they interact with new people for the first time, they always ask which of them is taller, despite both being listed as 6’3”. Some days, it depends on who puts their cleats on first. Still, without or without cleats, their consensus answer is Plutko, even if a stranger they just met thinks otherwise.
Plutko and Weiss saw each other grow from freshmen starters behind a future MLB Cy Young winner in Gerrit Cole. They were drafted five rounds apart in 2013 and witnessed their MLB debuts from afar. Plutko debuted in late 2016, and Weiss in early 2018. The constant communication between these two has built a close friendship. They have become additional pitching coaches for one another on and off the field.
“It’s funny, we bicker. We’re like a married couple,” Weiss chuckled. “We’re both very headstrong people with different ways of going about it. He’s always very sure and confident about his decision-making making, and I’m wishy-washy, and I have ten thousand ideas. It is nice to have somebody who has seen me be good in the past and knows what that looks like.”
“I have Pete [Larson] and Dan [Urbina] as unbelievable pitching coaches and all the other players around,” said Plutko. “But all of a sudden, I have another pitching coach that everybody else doesn’t have, and I think he feels the same in the sense that there’s just another set of eyes that knows you so well.”
Saints pitching coach Pete Larson noticed the bond Plutko and Weiss have built over the years once they began throwing together for the Saints on July 9. They were veterans providing solid mentorship for younger starters and relievers on the club, such as Louie Varland, Ryan Jensen, and Aaron Rozek.
However, the impeccable bond Plutko and Weiss have to help each other is a rarity in the majors and minors. It’s something even a pitching coach like Larson could learn from.
“They’re definitely well-tuned into what worked well for them in the past,” Larson said. “They’ve seen each other throw so many times it ends up being a huge benefit. It’s been huge for them and baseball does come full circle at multiple points, and I think it’s really cool it ended up working out that they got to spend some time together this season.”
The reunion between Plutko and Weiss has been the highlight of their 2024 seasons, even though things on the mound didn’t pan out as either of them entirely hoped this season. Plutko felt healthy returning from his hip injury at the end of May once he joined the Saints. Still, he admits it was a workout walking a half mile to the ballpark in Buffalo because he rarely walked the distance before his surgery.
When the calendar flipped to August, things were trending in the right direction for Plutko to be an option to join the Twins. He had a 3.81 ERA after pitching 60 innings. That was until a start on August 6 when he allowed five hits and four runs. He exited the game with a right forearm strain and effectively pitched his last game in 2024.
“Until I got hurt, I thought I was putting myself into a pretty good spot to at least be considered,” Plutko said. “Like I said, that unfortunately didn’t happen this year, and my goal going into the off-season is to be more healthy than I was this season and get back to the big leagues again.”
For Weiss, his recovery from his shoulder injury in Spring Training with the Twins took him longer than he expected. He set out to gain better control of his pitches, and he did. Weiss reduced his walk total from 30 in 51 ⅓ innings between the majors and minors in 2023 to just 13 in 29 innings in 2024.
“I’ve been forced to pitch a little bit more. There’s been days when it’s been well executed, and I’m getting my misses,” said Weiss. “Then there’s been days where it’s just been a little ugly. I think it took me a little bit longer to get up to speed than I hoped when I showed up, wasn’t sharp by any means, stuff’s a little down.”
Despite their setbacks with injuries and results on the mound, Plutko and Weiss have a lot of good things they’ll be building off of and working on improving this offseason. In Plutko’s case, it’ll be building his fastball velocity up from 88-89 mph to 91-92 consistently. On the other hand, Weiss will work on building his off-speed arsenal into one of his greater strengths in the strike zone.
Plutko and Weiss intended to play next year. However, they don’t know where they’ll be starting Spring Training. Their goal is to find a team in the majors that will take them both on deals so that their reunion from this season doesn’t have to be the final time they possibly play on the same team together.
“Unfortunately, neither of us has had the best year here,” Weiss said. “He’s thrown the ball very well but just obviously missed time, but it’s been wonderful reuniting as friends and as teammates again.”
“We were just laughing yesterday or the other day. We’re going to play together again next year, too, right?” Plutko said. “Like, obviously, we’re just doing this from now on. When you bring in the extra layers when we were just 19-year-old kids running around a college campus to now I’m almost 33, he’s 32, and kids, and wives and family members and all that kind of stuff into it. It’s a completely different thing entirely and one that I’m just unbelievably grateful for this year.”