photo by: John Young

Kansas sophomore pitcher Blake Weiman sends a pitch to the plate while Texas Tech senior Tyler Neslony takes a lead off of third base during the final game of their series Sunday morning at Hoglund Ballpark.

More than nine years after he was selected in the MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, former Kansas left-handed pitcher Blake Weiman made his big-league debut on Friday night.

Weiman, now playing for the Los Angeles Angels, worked around a pair of singles to pitch a scoreless seventh inning in what became a 4-3 victory over the Miami Marlins.

After a long road through the minor leagues, the 2026 season featured in comparison a bit of a meteoric rise for the native of Littleton, Colorado. His year began in mid-June on a rehab assignment to the Arizona Complex League before a successful stint with the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas.

During his six weeks in Madison, Alabama, he pitched in 17 games with a 1-0 record and a 1.93 ERA before the Angels selected his contract on Tuesday. He skipped the Triple-A level entirely.

Weiman had drawn close to MLB in the past. After the Pirates made him an eighth-round pick in 2017, he quickly rose through the ranks and reached Triple-A Indianapolis, where he made eight appearances in 2019. After Minor League Baseball canceled its season in 2020 due to the pandemic, he remained there in 2021. But after he opened 2022 with a 7.27 ERA in 12 appearances, Indianapolis released him on June 27, 2022.

He caught on with the Seattle Mariners organization soon afterward, playing at Double-A Arkansas in 2022 and Triple-A Tacoma in 2023. He then joined the Chicago Cubs, and played almost the entire year at Double-A Tennessee with a 2.77 ERA in 48 2/3 innings.

His tenure with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, the Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, didn’t go nearly as well last season, and he spent more than six months as a free agent before catching on with the Angels.

At KU, Weiman pitched for three seasons under head coach Ritch Price. He was an All-Big 12 honorable mention in 2017, when in 30 appearances he went 5-1 with a 2.80 ERA and 55 strikeouts to just five walks on the year.

Weiman is the first former Jayhawk to receive a major-league call-up since Ryan Zeferjahn in 2024. Zeferjahn was recently traded from the Angels to the Chicago Cubs, for whom he made two quick appearances on Tuesday and Wednesday and allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings.