Reliever Kyle Crick, formerly of the San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago White Sox, was signed by the New York Mets to a minor-league contract.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, former SF Giants reliever Kyle Crick has agreed to a minor league deal with the New York Mets. After being selected by the Giants with the 49th overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, Crick quickly rose to the position of top prospect within the team during his minor league career.
Using the compensatory pick the Giants received when Juan Uribe signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers following the 2010 championship season, Crick was selected right out of high school.
In the low minors, the young righty struck out a lot of batters and moved up the Giants prospect ladder quickly. Pitching in the All-Star Futures Game, Crick was named the Giants’ top prospect by Baseball America in 2013. Baseball America ranked him as the 33rd best minor league prospect prior to the 2014 season.
Crick could not control his wildly inconsistent command, and he stalled in the upper minors. Following three years at Double-A, Crick was promoted to the bullpen by the Giants, and he made it to the majors in 2017. In his 30 games as a rookie, he pitched 32.1 innings, struck out 28 batters, and issued 17 walks while maintaining a 3.06 ERA. Crick is not a major league starter.
Following that strong but inconsistent rookie campaign, the Giants traded Crick to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Andrew McCutchen, along with future All-Star Bryan Reynolds. In what may not have been the Giants’ best set of transactions, eight months later, the team traded McCutchen to the New York Yankees in exchange for Juan De Paula and Abiatal Avelino.
Crick was one of the Pirates’ best relievers in his first full big-league season, logging 60.1 innings at a 2.39 ERA. But in the next season, his control issues reappeared. Before sustaining a broken finger that ended his season in a brawl with Felipe Vasquez, the closer at the time, in the clubhouse in 2019, Crick walked 35 batters in 49 innings.
Crick’s back and shoulder ailments kept him out of the 2020 season for the most part. Crick was released by Pittsburgh in July 2021, and he played for the White Sox’s triple-A team the remainder of the season.
Before being designated for assignment and being sent straight back to the minor leagues in 2022, Crick signed a new minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox and played in 14 major league games. He gave up 11 walks despite having a respectable 4.02 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 15.2 innings pitched.
With the exception of three appearances in the Dominican Winter League, Crick did not pitch professionally after opting out of a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays in March of last year.
Although Crick’s slider still has a lot of movement, he will need to improve its control if he wants to be a regular in the Mets bullpen. But with New York failing to assemble a reliable pitching staff, the veteran should have no trouble finding another reliable position.