Andrew McCutchen has been traded to the San Francisco Giants for Kyle Crick and Bryan Reynolds. You probably know a lot more about the former than the latter two, so here’s a brief scouting report of the Pirates’ return in the trade of their former MVP.
Kyle Crick, reliever — The 25-year-old debuted to decent results in the big leagues last season. He posted a 3.06 ERA, 28 strikeouts and 17 walks in 32 1/3 innings with the Giants. Before his promotion in July, he also put up solid numbers with the Class AAA Sacramento River Cats. Pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Crick managed a 2.76 ERA with 39 strikeouts against 13 walks in 29⅓ innings.
The righty relied mostly on his fastball, which he threw. His average fastball velocity was 95.8 mph, according to Fangraphs.
Grant Brisbee of Giants blog McCovey Chronicles believes Pirates fans will like Crick’s stuff.
Crick being a part of the trade is a bummer, considering that he was a creeper candidate to be a bullpen monster next year. If the Giants did have a surplus of anything, it was with right-handed relievers who chucked baseballs super hard but didn’t have a great idea where they were going, so you could understand why they would consider Crick to be interchangeable with Roberto Gomez or Reyes Moronta. Still, it’s a drag to lose Crick. He showed promise last year, and his presence would have made it less likely that the Giants would need to trade my pet prospect in 2020 for some overpaid veteran bullpener.
Pirates fans: You will be impressed with Crick. He throw ball hard. He throw ball good. There’s a lot of potential there.
Here’s a link to his Twitter, where he has already updated his bio to say RHP for the Pirates. Here are some of his highlights from both the big-league and minor-league levels last season:
Bryan Reynolds, outfielder — The 22-year-old got on base a lot with Class High-A San Jose, posting a slash line of .312/.364/.426 in 121 games. He also showed a little pop in hitting 10 homers, nine triples and 26 doubles.
The one glaring hold in his game? He’s definitely a hacker. He struck out 106 times last season while drawing just 37 walks.
Still, in a baseball world that increasingly finds roles for strikeout-prone players like him, Brisbee thinks the loss of Reynolds “could sting” for the Giants.
While he has a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, and he doesn’t quite walk enough to make up for it, he’s a speedy switch-hitter with a lot of tools and an ability to hit for average. That’s not a small thing, and if he can stick in center field, he might give the Pirates a lot of value over the next few years.
Here’s a link to his Twitter, though it’s protected. Here are some of his minor-league highlights from last season:
Overall, neither guy was ranked among San Francisco’s top three prospects. MLB.com had Reynolds at No. 4 and Crick at No. 16. And Baseball America ranked Reynolds at No. 5 while Crick did not crack their top 10.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: January 16, 2018, 12:09 a.m.
