DECEMBER 6: Crick’s deal is now official, with Joel Sherman of the New York Post reporting that the righty will earn $950K while in the majors and $180K while in the minor leagues.
DECEMBER 1: The Mets have signed right-hander Kyle Crick to a minor league deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The righty, who is represented by Paragon Sports International, has received an invitation to major league Spring Training.
It’s a belated birthday present for Crick, who turned 31 years old yesterday. The righty is coming off a mostly lost season in 2023. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays but opted out at the end of Spring Training and he remained unsigned through the end of the season. He recently joined Águilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican Republic, racking up four strikeouts in three innings there. It seems he looked good enough in that brief winter ball showing to pique the interest of the Mets.
Prior to 2023, Crick made 194 big league appearances from 2017 to 2022, pitching for the Giants, Pirates and White Sox. He has a career 3.56 earned run average, generally getting his fair share of strikeouts but also dealing with control issues. He has punched out 24.6% of batters faced in his career but also given out free passes at a 13.3% clip.
The Mets have been focused on improving their depth in the past few days, giving out one-year deals to Luis Severino, Joey Wendle and Austin Adams. Crick will give the bullpen a bit of extra depth in a non-roster capacity. The Mets traded away Dominic Leone and David Robertson from their bullpen during the 2023 season, then Adam Ottavino opted out of his deal at season’s end.
Baseball Reference is your friend.
baseball-reference.com/players/c/crickky01.shtml
Mets suck so bad they signed a Scrubb last week and are playing Cricket now.
NYM fans about to go batsh*t crazy over a MiLB depth signing. It’s what they do
Nope. We get it.
Well, some of us get it. Some of the comments at the former MetsBlog are pretty batsh*t stupid..
@marcfrombrooklyn: In case you haven’t noticed, some of the comments everywhere on the Internet are pretty batshit stupid.
No asterisks needed.
Not all Mets fans are like that. Most of us realize it’s a depth move.
True, though Crick’s BB rate since the start of 2019 is… unnerving.
I’m sure it’s coincidence that Crick and Adams are wild K guys, but it’ll be interesting to see how many more of the scrap heap brigade fit this “high upside for 30 innings” model.
Just pray that these guys are better than the arsonists in the pen last season!
Control issues have always been his biggest problem. His pure stuff is outstanding, though. I remember watching him play a few times in the minors when he was still with SF’s organization. The control was the reason he never could stick as a starter, but he had just amazing natural talent.
That’s what some do unfortunately and make the rest of us look bad.
Whatever happened to MetsFan-22? I miss that guy. He was good for laughs…and even funnier predictions…that always backfired.
Hopefully unalived himself
*“un-alived”
@MarlinsFanBase Metsfan22 is still active but only on the site called Metsmerized
Someone needs to invite him back here. He shouldn’t stay on a site filled with the same types or even bigger homers than him. He won’t grow as a person if he only stays where there’s more idiots like him.
@MarlinsFanBase yeah that site is the worst. The Mets could sign Barry Bonds right now to a major league deal and everyone will think its a great signing
@LFGMets (Metsin7) #ConsistentlyBannedBaseballExpert
Blame Matt Cerrone for catering to that breed of Mets fan. Ever since he built Mets Blog to organize that part of the fan base in unison, your fan base took a major hit in overall credibility in the eyes of other fan bases. I do feel bad for the sensible Mets fans that are out there. That ilk of the MetsFan-22 types have always embarrassed your fan base…and there’s so many of them! And SNY caters to them too ever since the Wilpons got duped into that deal with Matt Cerrone. Sad…just sad!
MetsBlog has been trash since he started it. Made it even worse when SNY started attaching themselves to him
Exactly. Anything like that embarrasses any fan base. I thank goodness that we haven’t had the similar guy we have in the Marlins fan base getting a following.
Decent depth piece. Looking forward to the excitement of next week.
Dumpster diving is the thing again in Flushing. Lol Mets
Dude… It’s a minor league signing … Like seriously, Mets have signed a 5th starter, a utility infielder, a split contract BP piece, and a minor league BP piece, all the whole nearly every top free agent is still on the market other than 2 guys they were never going to sign in gray and Nola and people are acting like this isn’t a team that just said “sure I’ll pay 80 million dollars for your top prospects” 4 months ago
Krick has awesome stuff. In my mind he is is worth the risk. Who knows if he can eventually get his stuff together.
I’m even willing to admit the Mets actually made some solid moves with the Crick and Tonkin signings, and I’m a Braves fan…lol
Robrock is one of the obsessed losers who comes to every Mets article to bash them. The Mets could trade Tylor Megill straight up for Mookie Betts and he would come here to write ‘OMG LOL METS’. He’s clueless.
Leave mamis basement sir
Have a little patience young jedi. The WMs haven’t even started yet… This is what happens every year.
There is absolutely zero chance that hader is signing anywhere that he wouldn’t be the closer…
It’s likely Rangers vs Phillies in that fight, though it’s always possible another suitor emerges… But regardless of who it is, he will 100% be the closer and the Mets are one of the few teams where he wouldn’t be inarguably the best rp on the roster
Be realistic you not paying $19 million for a set up guy
Diaz is the closer
A. I disagree that Hader is better. Yes, his era and era+ last year were better than Diaz’s best season, but his peripherals (while great) did not back that up. His FIP was over a full run higher than his ERA. He is also 1 year removed from an objectively bad year (not unlike the year Diaz had in 2019). Meanwhile, the peripherals for Diaz’s 2022 literally had him at a sub 1 FIP which is pretty much unheard of. Either way, I said “inarguably,” meaning a case could really be made either way.
B. Yes, Diaz is coming off an injury. Yes there is some concern. But Diaz is young, and these type of tears are more impactful in sports like football and soccer, so I don’t think this is nearly as concerning as if it was an arm injury
Either way, it simply isn’t happening. There are a lot of suitors for Hader — Mets are definitely not one of them
Queue the “lol Mets” comments in 3…2…1….
The Mets recognized their mistakes of last year and won’t make them again. They’ll spend on Yokomoto and pickup a solid DH and a pitcher like Montgomery. No Ohtani or Soto or Bellinger. They might squeeze into post season in 2024 and then real contenders in 2025.
They manage to convert Velander and Scherzer’s salaries into prospects, which was pretty creative. A bigger mistake would have been to keep them, trade more prospects for rentals as they did with PCA, and still finish out of the playoffs or get swept in the wild card round and have a depleted farm system going forward.
He was never the same after punching that kiddie fiddler, but sacrifices must be made for the greater good.
It’s a crick, Mets are going for it!
@LFGMets: You need to smoke a joint and chill out.
Good thing is no one got any of those guys yet cause there’s something called a market forming but clowns like you wouldn’t understand that
What dynasty have you created? Your sarcasm game is not even strong!
The 2024 season hasn’t even started & the Mets are “Up the Crick” !!
youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=okXhAC78d4Q
This week’s focus: Strikeout artists who walk (and sometimes hit) the park, and switch-hitting catchers who might make it to #3 on the catching depth chart.
One more of these types and it’s definitely a trend.
It’s good to see Stearns beginning to load up on relievers NOT of the Denyi Reyes–Stephen Nogosek variety, guys with no upside you’re lucky to get a 5.00 ERA from, and also setting a benevolent tone by putting guys however briefly on the 40-man.
Maybe the Mets want to win a AAA championship, stockpiling these guys with potential. Let’s see what happens next week at the winter meetings, hopefully something really positive will happen there. I hope Keith and Gary won’t have to resort to flipping for baseball cards in the booth when the Mets are out of games.
Mets have a Crick, a Scrubb, and a Tonkin, they’re now unbeatable in the pen. Now all they need is Bobby Bonilla to DH.
Yawn
In most people yawning is a normal reflex, although poorly understood. However, if you experience excessive yawning for no apparent reason, it is wise to visit your physician and make sure there is nothing going on that is abnormal.
Sad that Crick was actually very good up until the day he decided to get into a clubhouse fight with the Closer who shall remain nameless. He did not follow the Crash Davis advice to never hit a guy with your pitching hand. Had to have surgery to repair the damage and has never been the same.