Ex-Yankees Pitcher Signs With Reds As Intriguing Bounce-Back Candidate which revealed his fate
One former member of the New York Yankees officially has found himself a new home. Former Yankees pitcher Brooks Kriske officially signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday after spending part of the 2023 season with the Kansas City Royals, according to the club. “The Reds today signed (right-handed pitcher) Brooks Kriske to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League camp.”
Kriske was selected in the sixth round of the 2016 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft and worked his way up through the Yankees’ farm system. He eventually made his big league debut with the Yankees in 2020 and made four appearances and allowed six earned runs across 3 2/3 innings pitched. The righty made 12 appearances with the Yankees in 2021 but was designated for assignment and eventually landed with the Baltimore Orioles. Kriske eventually was released and landed with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars of Nippon Professional Baseball in 2022. He signed with the Royals ahead of the 2023 season and made four appearances before joining the Saitama Seibu Lions of the NPB. Kriske now will look to work his way back up to the big leagues with the Reds. He does have some upside and is 29 years old. In two seasons in the NPB, Kriske has logged a 2.31 ERA across 32 appearances. If he can play at that level in the Reds’ farm system, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him get another shot at the big leagues in 2024.
Three of those guys were rated as Top 100 prospects in baseball at some point this year. Lowder (#2), Arroyo (#3), Phillips (#4) and Petty (#6) are all among the clubs top prospects.
When the Reds acquired Edwin Arroyo from Seattle it was for Luis Castillo at the 2022 trade deadline. That trade also included Noelvi Marte, Andrew Moore, and Levi Stoudt. Arroyo and Marte were both well regarded, Top 100 prospects. Moore was a relief prospect and Stoudt was a solid, but uninspiring prospect. Two years of team control is more than 1.4 years of team control, but it seems that the ask from the White Sox is a whole lot more than what the Reds asked for, and got, for Luis Castillo. And at the time of that deal he had a 2.86 ERA, not coming off of an ERA of 4.58.
If that’s the price of acquisition then it’s pretty easy to understand why Dylan Cease is still a Chicago White Sox player. Maybe the market has changed in a big way in the last 16 months, but that seems unlikely because no one else has stood and paid that price, either.
Dylan Cease isn’t a free agent until after the 2025 season, so he’ll be around for at least two years with whatever team he’s with moving forward. But two rumors – one from Bruce Levine of 670 The Score in Chicago that we previously wrote about, and a newer one from Jason Williams of the Cincinnati Enquirer – have the White Sox asking Cincinnati for a combination of Rhett Lowder, Chase Petty, Connor Phillips, Edwin Arroyo, and another unnamed prospect.
