Yankees: Orioles claim Brooks Kriske in most hilarious revenge possible

OK, on the one hand, the New York Yankees objectively bungled the Brooks Kriske situation, up to and including the moment of his release.

On the other hand … LOL.

In case you somehow missed the finer points of the saga, the Yankees believed in Kriske, something they made very clear throughout the 2019-20 offseason. They saw him as the “next Chad Green,” presumably meaning he had an active fastball and they eventually planned to run him into the ground by early August.

When he made his MLB debut in July 2020, things appeared to be running smoothly; he threw a shutout inning against the Baltimore Orioles. He also capped off his season with … another shutout inning against the Baltimore Orioles! Alright, then. We’re getting somewhere.

Unfortunately, in between those two outings, he allowed six runs in 1.2 innings pitched.

In 2021, with fans in the stands, we’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to more of the same; Kriske’s ERA this season is 15.26 in 7.2 innings pitched — but, on a brighter note, his FIP is a mere 12.56. His fielders have really let him down! Or … hey wait a second, those are just the same numbers rearranged. Maybe the people who’ve created FIP are trolling us.

Regardless, Kriske put forth one of the worst singular pitching series in Yankee history in 2021, leading for the team to finally pull the plug on him earlier this week.

On Thursday, he was picked up! By the Baltimore Orioles, a division opponent that definitely thinks they just got our goat. Take that!

Take … what?

The Orioles hilariously claimed Brooks Kriske from the Yankees.

He was assigned to Triple-A immediately, so unfortunately the Yanks will miss the opportunity to swing over his forkballs in 3.2 scoreless innings in Thursday night’s series finale.

From what we’ve seen so far of Kriske, we don’t think the O’s got a steal here, but it is important to note the Yankees also look bad as a result of this move.

This offseason, they prioritized Kriske over Garrett Whitlock, the potential AL Rookie of the Year in Boston, and Trevor Stephan, who’s in the Cleveland bullpen. That prioritization didn’t work, try as they might to make “Kriske” happen. When they finally released him off the 40-man this week, it was in order to add Sal Romano, who threw 1/3 of a terrible inning in the opening game of this set, leaving injured after deflecting a line drive with his bare hand.

Hope it was worth it!

If the Red Sox had claimed Kriske, I’d be tossing and turning in bed, wondering what sort of devil magic they were planning for the guy who spiked an historic number of wild pitches into the ground in New York’s extra-inning humiliation at Fenway in late July.

The Orioles? Eh. Best of luck, kid, but I can’t get mad. Hope it works out better in Baltimore.

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