YES Network.com

Thursday was a “Black Thursday” for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees’ outfield, as the Bombers’ Triple-A affiliate waved goodbye to a quartet of outfielders.

Three of the four, Colin Curtis, Jack Cust, and Raymond Kruml, were all let go from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre roster, all let go by the Yankees, while DeWayne Wise – who played for SWB earlier this season – was given his outright release by the team.

The 33-year-old Cust, a native of Flemington, New Jersey, was signed to a Minor League deal earlier in the spring, was hitting .249/.400/.475 with 20 home runs, 66 RBI, and 81 walks in 425 plate appearances for Scranton.

Curtis, 27, was a fourth-round pick of the Yankees in 2006 and made his MLB debut with the Bombers in 2010, but missed all of 2011 with an injury and was hitting just .220 with one homer and 23 RBI in 71 Triple-A games this season.

Kruml, a 2008 draft choice of the team, appeared in just 26 games for Scranton this season due to injury, and the 26-year-old was hitting .225 with a home run and seven RBI as of his release.

As for Wise, the 35-year-old outfielder played well for the Yankees at both Triple-A and the Major League level; he earned a spot in Scranton after going 14-for-39 with two homers and 10 RBI in the spring as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training, and he then hit .329-4-10 in 21 games at Triple-A before being called up to replace the injured Brett Gardner in early May.

Wise hit .262 with three homers, eight RBI, and seven steals in 56 games (63 plate appearances) with the Yankees, but was designated for assignment when the Yankees acquired Ichiro last Monday and used his veteran rights to refuse a re-assignment to Triple-A. The team had 10 days to trade, release, or reassign Wise once he was designated – a window which would have expired Thursday afternoon – and chose to let him go after his refusal to return to Scranton.

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