ST. LOUIS --- Tusculum University baseball alum Brandon Dickson has returned to the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
The former Pioneer right-hander inked a free agent contract last week with the professional club that originally signed him in 2006. He has been assigned to Triple-A Memphis Redbirds where he has made two relief appearances over the weekend against Indianapolis.
Dickson is looking to return to the majors where he played in two separate stints with the Cardinals in 2011 and again in 2012. He appeared in eight games for St. Louis where he pitched in 14.2 innings while posting a 4.91 earned run average. He recorded 13 strikeouts and made his lone major league start on Sept. 1, 2011 against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Dickson has 176 Minor League appearances across eight seasons, the majority of that coming with Memphis from 2010-2012 and now 2021. In 79 appearances and 75 starts for Memphis, he has recorded 24 wins with a 3.59 ERA and 365 strikeouts in 468 innings pitched. Across all levels of the minors, he has a 3.73 ERA with 665 strikeouts in 915.2 innings pitched which included stops in Johnson City, Springfield and the Quad Cities.
From 2013-2020, Dickson was one of the top pitchers in the Nippon Professional League in Japan where he played eight seasons with the Orix Buffaloes. He logged a 3.32 career ERA where he posted 49 wins and 34 saves, those coming over the past two years since making the move to the bullpen. He logged 892.1 innings with 673 strikeouts with the Buffaloes.
Most recently, Dickson has pitched with the U.S. National Team over the past two summers where he has appeared in seven games and posted a 3.24 ERA with three saves and 15 strikeouts. At the 2019 WBSC Premier12 in Tokyo, he led the tournament in saves (3) and Team USA with 11 strikeouts, earning him a spot on the WBSC All-World Team.
Last month, he made two relief appearances (3.1 innings) as Team USA posted a perfect 4-0 record at the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifying event as the Red, White and Blue punched its ticket for next month's Tokyo Olympic Games.
In his only season at Tusculum in 2006, Dickson went 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA. His 24 mound appearances are tied for the second most in a season at Tusculum and earned him South Atlantic Conference All-Tournament honors.
