The Pirates have acquired left-hander Dillon Peters from the Angels in exchange for cash considerations, both clubs announced. The Angels designated Peters for assignment last week after signing outfielder Adam Eaton to a major league contract. To open roster space for Peters, Pittsburgh has designated reliever Kyle Crick for assignment.
Peters appeared in the majors each season from 2017-20, with the bulk of his experience coming in 2019. Altogether, he’s tossed 132 2/3 innings of 5.83 ERA/5.22 SIERA ball across 31 MLB appearances (including 24 starts). To date, Peters has struggled to miss bats at the big league level, striking out a below-average 16.7% of batters faced and generating swinging strikes on only 8.7% of his offerings (11.4% league average).
However, Peters has shown much better strikeout and walk numbers this season at Triple-A. Through 41 1/3 frames with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake, the 28-year-old has punched out a strong 26.8% of hitters while walking just 7.3% of opponents. Peters has been plagued by the home run ball this year (2.61 HR/9), but that’s also likely influenced by the extreme hitter-friendly environment of Triple-A West. Clearly, the Pirates’ front office was sufficiently intrigued by Peters’ improved minor league peripherals to take a low-cost flyer on him. He’s in his final option year, meaning he can move freely between Pittsburgh and Triple-A Indianapolis for the rest of the season if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
It has been a difficult 2021 season for Crick, who has intermittently flashed high-leverage potential. A one-time top pitching prospect coming up through the Giants’ system, the righty moved to the bullpen in 2017. He made his big league debut with San Francisco that year, tossing 32 1/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball. That offseason, the Giants shipped him to Pittsburgh alongside Bryan Reynolds in a now-regrettable deal to acquire Andrew McCutchen.
Crick pitched well in his debut campaign with Pittsburgh, working 60 1/3 relief innings with a 2.39 ERA and a 3.57 SIERA. He’s not consistently managed to follow up on that success, though, as his control has gone backwards in recent years. Crick struggled in 2019, then missed much of the abbreviated 2020 season dealing with shoulder and lat injuries.
This year, Crick has made 27 appearances totaling 24 1/3 innings. He’s tallied a 4.44 ERA with worse than average strikeout (19.6%), walk (17.8%) and groundball (36.7%) rates. Crick’s velocity on both his fastball and slider is down 2-3 miles per hour relative to his heyday, and he’s seen an accompanying dip in swinging strike rate.
The Pirates will have a week to trade Crick or expose him to waivers. As a player with between three and five years of major league service, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed. Doing so, however, would mean forfeiting what remains of his $800K salary. If another club acquires Crick via small trade or waivers (or if he remains in the Pittsburgh organization but pitches his way back onto the 40-man roster before the end of the year), he’d be controllable via arbitration through 2023.
Maybe the Angels will pick up Crick.. he can’t be any worse than some of the current batch of relievers the team has…
Trust me he’s bad…
Really? 27 outings this season.. 21 of them scoreless. I mean, he’s not elite, but he’s certainly better than Peters. And most options the Pirates have. My guess is they are already close to dealing him and didn’t want to lose another guy.
as a reliever one horrible game can kill your stats. Crick is better than his stats… but… still I wouldn’t put him in at high leverage situations.. more of an inning eater guy.
But he has shown flashes of being better than your average reliever. i’d like him to stay but if he ends up somewhere else might be better for him to see if another organization can level that out for him.
He has other flashes that erupt into flames too. Used to be very solid but makes a fan nervous when he enters a game. Just make sure you have a reliever who is good at stranding inherited runners ready to go it you send crick in
Crick is not a bad pitcher. Hes had one bad outing. Get your facts straight before you yap out FAKE BULLCRAP
Crick has never been the same since he had his altercation with the pitcher who shall not be named in the clubhouse back in 2019.
Too bad. We know more about that other pitcher now–classless thug. Sounds like he could never control himself.
after that pitcher was picked up….. Crick was one of my favorite players on the team the rest of that year.
Yeah, he was very strong. So sad he has fallen off so much
Pretty sure if the Angels wanted him this would have been a 1 for 1 swap. Crick is not good.
Crick off buddy! Don’t want him on the Angels
Crick hasn’t been very good but Peters doesn’t seem like an improvement at all.
If and when the Bucs trade Anderson, Peters would be a definite help in the tank if they slide him into the rotation.
Really? Have you looked at his stats?
Yes I did. He would be more help in the race for #1-1 in 22 than Anderson. Anderson has been keeping the Bucs in just about every game he has started.
Crick’s peripherals are not great but he is still effective for the team. I don’t quite get this move at all. Despite not pitching well the last 30 days he has still compiled a 0.0 WAR right now and for the Pirates that usually means he is a starter for us.
Maybe they think they can get something back in a trade? Crick hasn’t been solid but I’m still surprised they would DFA him over other possibilities.
Crick is the most frustrating pitcher to watch. He can’t throw strikes.
Kenely Jansen would like a word
Gone because he wore out his welcome with co workers. Struggled past month. Catcher had strong public words with him. He was a non tender candidate. He is good as a 6 7 inning guy, even 8th if he gets it together. Change of scenery should be good for him.
Yeah that’s the only thing I could think of for explaining a straight DFA. SOMEONE will put a claim in for him based on his one really great season he had.
The Pirates are huge buyers, eh?!
To Nuttings standards, a dollar is quite a bit to offer
Crick might have permanently damaged his pitching hand when he punched that pedo in the Pirates clubhouse. His sacrifice will always be appreciated by me.
I was going to say, if opposing teams are looking at their numbers or film or scouting reports and thinking Crick isn’t worth picking up…
Do remember that he punched Vazquez in his face.
Must have clocked him good cause he hit the IL with a hand injury 🙂
Many were quick to condemn Crick when it happened (evidence from comments on this site from that incident). A statue outside the home clubhouse would be appropriate.
The lesson there is if you are going to randomly assault someone, better hope they are later exposed as a pedo.
Highly doubt Crick had this info and was defending anyone when he clocked him.
Dumb luck.
Kyle did not follow the very good advice of Crash Davis. Kyle should have thwn a left and not a right.
Crick looks like a mighty fine Dolis replacement.
Crick would be nice depth for the Mets.
To any fan saying “I hope my team takes a flyer on him.” Prepare to g through the emotional roller coaster with him. There are inning where he looks untouchable. But many more where his pitches look like they are afraid of the strike zone.
Good summary, that’s about the size of him.
Definitely has more upside than down. His video game slider is enough to work with. But a 3 ft break makes it hard to throw for strikes. If he can locate the FB, it makes the slider unhittable. There has to be another deal close for this to make sense. He’s certainly worth throwing out there for a better than 75% success rate. (27 outings, 21 of them scoreless.)
Maybe Farhad will pick him up for cash and then flip him to the Pirates for Reynolds, pull the same con twice on the same mark.
Not the same mark…..
AND YOUR NOT A VERY CLEVER MORON
I’d rather have Cash Considerations. He gets traded a lot, but has a better ERA than the rest of the staff.
The move was made because the Pirates knew they are…………………………….
Up The CRICK !!!
Wow. Didnt see this coming. On some nights this guy has a Bugs Bunny slider. But never really liked him as a high leverage guy over the years.
On another note… they can DFA Crick but not an aging outfielder who can’t hit or throw?
Rays will pick him up and he’ll be closing games at a 1.00 ERA and .89 WHIP.
Half those
Crick didn’t look bad in his last scoreless outing against the Mets, better than Kyle Keller who increased the Mets lead.by 2 in just 1 inning.
Peters looks like another dumpster dive. His AAA ERA the last 3 seasons are also not impressive. Both him and Crick the same age, at least take a chance on a younger guy.
I’m not saying that Peters is good, but he’s shown flashes and was pitching well at extreme hitter friendly AAA .
Can the Angels afford to be letting him go as a back up option?? Especially if they thrown in the towel and trade away Cobb?
Between this the the Marsh promote makes me think something is brewing.
What’s wrong with Cobb? He’s been there 2nd best.. So sad, so so sad.
If the Angels thrown in the towel and decide to trade away Cobb. He’s the only SP that’s a FA at the end of the year with any real value
Crick fell out of favor fairly fast. Have to think this was as much as declining performance as a clash of personalities. Wouldn’t be surprised if he went somewhere and was decent.
As for Dillon peters, the fact the pirates are one arm short and he got sent to Indy tells you what they think of him. Guy is garbage or he would have gotten that spot.
Did the Pirates sign their 13th round pick, Owen Sharts? I hope they get the Sharts.
Ready to make a run Angels fans! A win today would go along way in the nooner match. Its ok, sweep them next time, with what all hope will be the crew back in a week…well At Least trout, That’s when it starts.
Ready to make a run Angels fans! A win today would go along way in the nooner match. Its ok, sweep them next time, with what all the hope will be the crew back in a week…well At Least withtrout, That’s when it starts.
You know, if the next championship doesn’t come the N.L west this year. It will come out of the A.L. west next year.. Yes the Angels, don’t hate, appreciate. 😉
Peters got roughed up his first two starts but has been pretty good since. In his last six, he had a 2.59 ERA over 31.1 innings. For some context, 5.62 is the league average ERA in the PCL…sorry, Triple-A West (man, I hate writing that). Not saying Peters was the answer, but he couldn’t have been any worse than Alex Claudio, Mike Mayers, Steve Cishek or when they call him up again, Aaron Slegers.
Crick is inconsistent and as the article says he has declined since arriving in Pittsburgh. In 2019 Hurdle would always bring him in with a comfortable lead and the next inning the Bucs would be down by 2 or 3 runs.