JUNE 27: Crichton cleared waivers and has been sent outright to Reno, the D-Backs announced.
JUNE 23: The Diamondbacks announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-handed reliever Stefan Crichton for assignment and recalled outfielder Nick Heath from Triple-A Reno in his place.
Crichton, 29, worked some high-leverage spots for the Snakes early in the season and even tallied four saves in the season’s first five weeks. In fact, Crichton is the only D-backs reliever with multiple saves this season and leads the team with nine saves dating back to Opening Day 2020.
The right-hander’s results have tanked as of late, however, leading to a 6.04 ERA that surely prompted Wednesday’s DFA. Crichton has totaled only 11 innings over his past 15 appearances, during which time he’s been tagged for 10 earned runs on 16 hits (two homers) with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five).
From 2019-20, Crichton was a solid member of the D-backs’ relief corps, tallying 56 1/3 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with a 50.3 percent grounder rate, a 24.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate. His velocity, strikeout rate and walk rate have all gone in the wrong direction for two consecutive seasons, however. This year’s middling 13.9 percent clip is barely half what it was back in 2019 when he notched a career-best 26.8 percent mark.
The Diamondbacks will have a week to trade Crichton or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. This year’s struggles and velocity dip, paired with the fact that he’s out of minor league options, might temper optimism among other clubs, however.
this is kinda surprising
does it strike you that there are a lot of potential upside rehab projects floating around this year?
Victim of the crackdown on sticky stuff maybe? I think a lot of guys are going to see their numbers skyrocket, perhaps we might see guys hit .300 plus again
Astros aren’t having any problems hitting 300 plus. Perhaps we need to see guys who are smart batters again
His performance dropped long before the sticky stuff was banned so that’s not it. Relievers are always volatile from year to year outside of a few who are consistently great
Don’t just throw around accusations without any proof please. SMH
This might be related to his reaction when the Diamondbacks didn’t throw to the plate to get a hobbling Daniel Vogelbach last night. He was yelling at Nick Ahmed. A similar thing happened to Shawn Kelley a couple years ago when he threw his glove down after a home run.
I doubt it. His recent performance has been bad enough to warrant a DFA and Arizona isn’t in a position to be getting rid of guys for throwing their glove if they’re performing well enough
I see a Mets waiver claim in his future.
back to Bmore and DFA Lakins please
Nah, we don’t need anymore projects. The ones we have are bad enough.
This balk from last Friday didn’t help his cause. As Celtics great Bill Russell used to say in his broadcasting days, “When things go bad, they go bad.”
mlb.com/video/lad-ari-x0931
I think you mean Bill Russell from the Dodgers…..I don’t think he played in the NBA……smh
No, I mean Bill Russell from the Celtics. It’s what he used to say as a color commentator when an NBA team was having a bad game. You’ve heard of that Bill Russell, right?
Welcome to the Orioles
No thanks. Already had him. Go to Pittsburgh or Colorado…or the moon.
His brother John was great in Farscape.
It’s not like Arizona has had a need for a closer. I’m sure many teams would snap him up in a heartbeat.
Welcome to Toronto
Twins on line one. If Crichton has a pulse, MIN has a place for him, stats be damned.
This organization is in such disarray. Crichton is a good pick up for the rays or astros
Surprised Crichton cleared waivers based on his last two years’ stats. He’s better than half the guys currently drawing a paycheck in the Phillies bullpen. Might not be a closer with a new team, but certainly there are teams who could use him : The aforementioned Phillies, Reds, Braves and the Giants (My best choice.).