San Francisco Giants: 5 Takeaways from the 2017 Season

4 – Crick Is a Thing Again

Not too long ago, it seemed the next step in Kyle Crick‘s baseball journey was to be DFA’d by the Giants to clear space on the 40-man roster. Then, 2017 happened.

Crick had stalled at Double-A, spending three unsuccessful seasons with the Richmond Flying Squirrels trying to figure things out. In 2017, he came into Spring Training with the knowledge that he would be pitching exclusively out of the bullpen, and he was tremendous. He put on a strong Cactus League showing, was sent to Triple-A, and was excellent with the Sacramento River Cats.

After posting a 2.76 ERA and striking out 39 in 29.1 over 24 games with Sacramento, Crick made his big league debut on June 22nd. He didn’t go back to the minor leagues. He made 30 appearances with the Giants, and pitched to a 3.06 ERA and 1.206 WHIP.

The control issues are still there, as Crick issued 15 walks in his last 21.1 innings as a big leaguer. In that same span, he also struck out 22 batters and also gave up just 13 hits. His repertoire is good enough that, if he does get himself into trouble, he can work out of it just as well.

Crick’s success came from his ability to limit hard contact. 19 Giants’ pitcher threw at least 10 innings this season, and among that group, Crick allowed the lowest percentage of line drives (16.1 percent) and hard-hit balls (20.5 percent) according to Fangraphs. He also posted a very strong 11.1 percent swinging strike rate. He was good against both righties (.167 opponent average) and lefties (.224).

Crick had showings in 2017 that would lead people to believe this is a young man who will get some big outs for this team over the next few years. He’s another guy who can have a big say in how good the team’s bullpen is in 2018.