Pittsburgh Pirates News: Former Reliever Kyle Crick Finds a New Team

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been very active with their relief core over the last few weeks.

Coming into July, it was expected that the Pittsburgh Pirates would look different by the end of the month.  With so many contenders in need of relief help, it seemed likely that the Pirates would move some of them at the Deadline.  However, the bullpen overhaul started with a surprise move.

Last week in a somewhat of a surprise move, the Pittsburgh Pirates placed Kyle Crick on waivers.  The thought was that the team would maybe be able to work out a waiver trade.  However, he cleared waivers without a team placing a claim.  After, the Pittsburgh Pirates outright released the veteran right-hander.

This was surprising that the team could not find a deal for Crick.  However, it made sense once seeing that not team even placed a claim on him.  This is significant considering some of the pitchers that teams will claim.  It also is significant that the Pittsburgh Pirates decided to move on from Crick.  They could have assigned him to their Triple-A affiliate, but instead, the team decided to part ways.

Well, Crick was able to find a new team and a contender in that.  According to multiple reports, Crick is signing a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox.  This news came from multiple Pittsburgh Pirates insiders including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"Kyle Crick will have a chance to work his way back to the big leagues after signing a minor league deal with the White Sox. The Pirates designated Crick for assignment on July 19 and released him on July 24."

The note above comes from Mackey’s most recent column. He also breaks down this morning’s trade with the Phillies. Be sure to give Jason a follow if you have not already, especially for Trade Deadline news.

Overall this is a good landing spot for Crick.  He gets to go to a contender that will likely call upon him at one point or another.  The White Sox are one of the teams looking for relief help so adding Crick gives them a depth option.  Albeit one that has pitched to a 4.44 ERA with a career-low in strikeouts (19%) and a career-high in walks allowed (17%).  Maybe he will get it figured out in the American League.