The Yankees announced Tuesday that they’ve re-signed Sal Romano to a Major League contract and designated right-hander Brooks Kriske for assignment to open space on the roster. Romano elected free agency over an outright assignment just yesterday but will almost immediately return to the MLB roster.
Kriske has been an up-and-down reliever for New York over the past couple seasons. This year alone, the Yankees have optioned him on seven separate occasions, recalling him six times when the need for a rested bullpen arm presented itself. Amidst the back-and-forth, Kriske has made eight appearances after pitching in his first four big league games last year. He’s yet to find any success against major league hitters, combining for 11 1/3 innings of 20-run ball to this point. Kriske has struck out fifteen batters, but he’s also issued eleven walks and served up six home runs in his rather limited time.
That said, the 27-year-old has a generally strong body of work in the minors. The USC product posted dominant numbers up through Double-A and has performed fairly well in his first taste of Triple-A this year. Over 28 1/3 innings with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Kriske has a 3.81 ERA with a massive 36.6% strikeout percentage, although throwing strikes has also been an issue at the minors’ top level. He’s doled out free passes to 12.5% of batters faced in the minors this season, and also issued walks at a similar clip in Double-A in 2019.
The Yankees will pace Kriske on waivers over the next few days, where another team could take a no-risk look to see if he can yet carry over that strong swing-and-miss stuff against big league hitters. His fastball has averaged north of 95 MPH in his MLB action, with a mid-80s split his featured secondary offering. Kriske still has one minor league option year remaining after this season, so any claiming team could continue to shuttle him between the majors and Triple-A as the Yankees recently have through the end of next season — so long as they keep him on the 40-man roster.
It has been an eventful past couple weeks for Romano. The 27-year-old signed a minor-league deal with the Yankees in mid-August (his second such arrangement of the season), then was selected to the big league roster but designated for assignment in relatively rapid succession. After clearing waivers, he very briefly hit free agency but will now step right back onto the Yankees’ active roster.
Between the Reds, Yankees and Brewers, Romano has worked 24 innings of relief at the big league level this season. He’s posted subpar numbers, but he has shown well at Triple-A and evidently continues to intrigue the New York front office. Romano is out of options, so the Yankees either have to keep him on the active roster moving forward or again risk losing him on waivers.
Why do this? Just like… not DFA him…
From a players perspective this most really suck – being bounced around like this can’t do much for their confidence
I have nothing against Kriske other than the fact that he was completely terrible at his job. Good riddance.
My mets could use kriske to shore up our pen as we close in on the division
Sure, as long as all the Mets underperformers step it up, the Mets might still make things interesting. At the moment it seems they are doing the opposite of closing in on the division. The Mets last game slipped them under.500
I like the hyphen 22. You know you are going to mess some people up.
thank u thank u
Metsfan22 should sue for copyright infringement
Damn you! Good fake out! Props. Props to Nihilus for being the first to notice, not that you wouldn’t have Curly.
I was minutes behind, Metsfan22 deserves better
Borderline plagiarism, Metsfan22 is goofy, but he has the right to his opinion under his tag!
Nope. Once you become a public figure, as Metsfan22 has tried so hard to do, satire is a completely legitimate response, protected by law against slander, libel, or complaints of plagiarism.
And, no one is denying Metsfan22 a platform to voice his opinion by being satirized. Nice work Metsfan-22.
Brooks Kriske doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He tied the record for the most passed balls in an inning in his debut.
Passed balls are attributed to catchers, do you mean Wild Pitches?
Whoever decided Kriske was more deserving of rule 5 protection over Whitlock should never work in baseball again.
They weren’t passed balls charged to the catcher, they were wild pitches, 4 of them in 1 inning. Kriske was awful during his tenure in NY. Now Nelson needs to get the boot.
I wouldn’t mention any names, like Brian Cashman.
I think of this too often, it causes me to lose sleep.
It wasn’t just protecting Kriske. They also protected Greg Allen and Ben Heller.
Nick Nelson too
Greg Allen should still be playing in the majors.
But that’s another story.
Hindsight certainly helps in all baseball personnel decisions @goat. (Calling plays in football too!)
But if you look at them on Savant they are pretty similar pitchers. Turns out, the Yanks definitely made the wrong choice whom to protect. However, at the time, there was no outpouring or backlash about what a ” horrible decision” it was.
I’d have to see that person’s overall record before passing judgement. But yours is a good, recycled hot take on the board.
Right on, Bucky. Also unmentioned is the injury history involved in the GW decision. BOS got lucky, and in 2 years people may look at this very differently.
The same sort of rinse, repeat hot take is out there re Kaprielian. It’s like someone taught a parrot some baseball names. “Braawwk; Garret Whitlock! Braawwk; James Kaprielian!”
That’s right!
Good point, @Pistol. I had completely forgotten that Whitlock had TJS in ’19. & with ’20 being a wash, he was much more of an unknown quantity at the time.
D’accord: bet that played into it.
@mlbnyyfan posted pretty much this *exact* same take back in June. Since then, it shows up every single Yankee thread that involves relief pitching. So: this one isn’t just a name.
It’s a whole phrase! “Brawwwk…Whitlock over Kriske…should be fired…brawwwk”
Didn’t he just opt out the other day? I have completely lost track of this guy’s situation with New York.
Bring back David Huff while we’re at it
You’re next Nick Nelson
Does that mean Sal is ineligible for the playoffs?
HUH that’s a good point
Wow. Great question. I think that technically he’s ineligible because he was a free agent the re-signed after Sept. 1… but I’m not certain. Great question.
…Fasano.
Kriske, Nelson, the list is endless that the Yankees can’t develop any reliable pitchers.
Every team in baseball struggles to fill out a quality staff entirely from within.
Even Tampa goes outside of their organization to get arms.
Kriske was indeed pretty bad. Good riddance. But I think Nelson could still be salvaged. Also: Green has always been solid. Loaisiga is an absolute stud out of the pen & Abreu appears to be developing into the same type of multi-inning weapon.
We’re not the Ray’s or whatever.
But we certainly have our share of successful developments with pitching.
Both starting & relieving.
Yanks flexing their muscles tonight, Love it! Kriske’s last game in Scranton was the 12th, faced 5 batters and walked ‘em all, gave up 3 runs prob the reason for DFA.
I will take any wins at this point, @Gruber.
Hope we keep it up. We have a penchant for making even these kind of games “interesting”.
Yeah, that’s a pretty ugly outing. & now we have Sal Not-Fasano. Again.
@Ducky, Would like to see a stress free game for a change esp vs a team like the O’s.
Well there you go, man.
That was – more or less – stress free. ‘Wrong Hand’ Romano did his best to make the 9th a little exciting. But all’s well that ends.
Got the win though.
Do the same thing tomorrow. Be helpful to go on another little run about now.
Down goes Romano, another injury. Would like to see Greg Weissert get called up from SWB. King was outstanding tonight 3 hit less innings.
Man.
That had to have hurt. Use the hand with the glove, Sal. Obviously, he reacted instinctively. But – as my grandfather used to say – the hot stove teaches best. Probably won’t be doing that again.
I am unfamiliar with Weissert, @Gruber. You seem pretty up to date with our MiLB teams. I appreciate it.
& King sure was. He definitely knew what he was trying to do tonight. Used all 5 of his pitches. I know it was “just Baltimore” or whatever. But he could develop into a useful piece.
Weissert throws fast ball, slider & changeup. Was 18rd ‘16 Fordham, between AA & AAA 37g 1.76. a little bit lower arm slot has really good breaking pitches. Scouting report says if he commands his future is bright.
Merci.
I’ve lost touch with our minors again. So as much of this stuff as you want to post to me, I will gladly take.
Like the sound of a “lower arm slot & good breaking pitches.” Guys like that are probably going to become valuable again post Sticky Stuff.
Gotta root for a kid that went to Fordham.
Go Rams!
I guess Sal is ok. Green stinks, his era past 7 outings is over 7.
I think Green is wearing down.
His 75.1 relief innings leads MLB. & through that, his ERA is still under 3.5 & RA is well under 4 (3.86).
He, Luetge & Loaisiga have been really good.
We’ve relied on them a bit too much though.
Damnit.
Pushed Holmes a little too hard there. & tough to win with 2 runs scored.
That’s what I read at first, every time, too, @tingley.
This is like a game within a game… let’s see how many pitchers with ERAs over 5.00 we can sign, and then we’ll tell Boone to use them in key situations and expect them to not suck. I don’t like this game.
And Andrew Heaney still has a job.
You can blame German and Sevy for that.
Pretty much, @YBC.
Taillon’s ankle & Kluber’s September shakiness are part of that too. Our starting staff is banged up. Has been all season. Thus: guy’s like Heaney have a spot.
“It’s not what you want.”
Should’ve signed Tanaka. He’d have come back for less money.