Cubs DFA Julian Merryweather, Promote RHP Brooks Kriske
You know how the peanut gallery always calls to DFA a reliever every time he has a tough game? Well, the Cubs may have been listening last night. After allowing a pair of earned runs on two hits and a walk while recording only two outs, righty Julian Merryweather has been designated for assignment. The 33-year-old was expected to be an integral high-leverage arm this season, but instead has stumbled to a 5.79 ERA with 15 strikeouts and 11 walks over 18.2 innings.
In his place, the Cubs have selected the contract of righty Brooks Kriske from Triple-A Iowa. The 31-year-old previously pitched for the Yankees, Orioles, and Royals in MLB while also spending time with Yokohama and Seibu in the NPB. Kriske’s previous performance at the highest level offers little to indicate he’ll be a lights-out bullpen arm, but his strikeout numbers in the minors are impressive.
The 6-foot-3 righty has 28 punches in 18.2 innings for the I-Cubs and 336 Ks in 241 total MiLB innings, so the stuff is there. He was a backwards guy last year, throwing his 84 mph splitter nearly 50% of the time. He has a 95 mph fastball that makes up about 30% of his pitches and an 82 mph slider that gets a lot of horizontal break with no depth. That splitter gets even more usage against lefties, so Kriske could be something of a specialist.
His offspeed pitch gets a lot of depth with reduced horizontal movement, and he can really play that off of the riding heater for north-south deception and the slider for east-west. I’m interested to see whether and how the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure has worked with him to get that performance from the minors to play in Chicago.
Perhaps most important, Kriske grew up a Cubs fan and now gets to pitch for his childhood team.
Excited to sign with my childhood team! Let’s go @Cubs pic.twitter.com/fupWW5aFYR
— Brooks Kriske (@brooks_kriske) November 27, 2024
