Brandon Dickson

TODAY: The Cardinals announced that Dickson has been released.

SEPTEMBER 8: The Cardinals announced that reliever Brandon Dickson has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Memphis. St. Louis designated him for assignment earlier this week.

Dickson rather remarkably made it back to the majors as a September call-up last week. The 36-year-old logged his first big league action since 2012 on Wednesday after spending the 2013-20 seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Dickson’s two big league outings didn’t go as he’d intended, however, as he served up three runs on five hits in two innings.

The right-hander will now return to Memphis, where he made eleven appearances earlier in the year. Dickson only posted a 9.58 ERA over 10 1/3 innings there, coughing up four home runs in that limited time. While his return to affiliated ball hasn’t yet yielded quality results, Dickson earned his way back with a strong body of work in Japan, as well as 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball for the U.S. National Team at this year’s Summer Olympics.

The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Brandon Dickson for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for lefty Andrew Miller, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.

It was a brief big league return for Dickson, who was selected to the Cardinals’ roster last week and made his first Major League appearance since 2012. The Cardinals are the only Major League organization Dickson has ever known, but he was away from the club for nearly a decade, as he spent the 2013-20 seasons pitching for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He also won a Silver Medal pitching for Team USA in the Olympics earlier this summer.

Dickson, 36, pitched a total of two innings with the Cards in his return effort and has only 16 2/3 Major League innings to his name. He has a solid 3.72 ERA in parts of four career seasons in Triple-A and was a rock-solid arm in Japan, pitching to a combined 3.32 earned run average in just shy of 900 innings with the Buffaloes, for whom he started 94 games and also made 121 relief appearances. The Cardinals can now either place Dickson on outright waivers or release him within the next few days.

The Cardinals are planning to select reliever Brandon Dickson to the big league roster, manager Mike Shildt tells reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Active rosters will expand from 26 to 28 tomorrow, but St. Louis will need to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate Dickson’s official promotion.

It’s the culmination of one of the most remarkable journeys in recent memory. Dickson was a starting pitcher early in his career, and he reached the majors with St. Louis in 2011. He made eight big league appearances between the next two seasons, allowing ten runs in 14 2/3 innings. After the 2012 campaign, the Cardinals released Dickson so he could pursue an opportunity with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Dickson would spend the next eight seasons in NPB. After beginning his time with the Buffaloes as a starter, the right-hander was eventually transitioned into the closer’s role. Between 2019-20, Dickson pitched to a 3.15 ERA and returned to the U.S. this winter. He signed a minor league deal with the Cardinals in mid-June and earned a spot on the U.S. national team’s Olympic roster.

St. Louis assigned Dickson to Triple-A Memphis, where he’s made eleven appearances. He’s struggled in that hitter-friendly environment, serving up thirteen runs (eleven earned) over 10 1/3 frames. Nevertheless, the 36-year-old has sufficiently impressed St. Louis brass with his current form to earn his first big league look in nearly a decade.