January 13: The O’s officially announced their signing of Kittredge today.
January 9: The Orioles and free agent reliever Andrew Kittredge are in agreement on a one-year, $10MM guarantee, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Paragon Sports International client receives a $9MM salary for the upcoming season and is guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a $9MM club option for 2026. Baltimore has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a move when the contract is finalized.
Kittredge will step into a setup role in front of star closer Félix Bautista, who is making his return from Tommy John surgery. The veteran joins Seranthony Domínguez, Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin as potential high-leverage pieces in Brandon Hyde’s bullpen. Kittredge has plenty of seventh and eighth inning experience. He led the National League and finished second in MLB (behind Houston’s Bryan Abreu) with 37 holds for the Cardinals last season.
The righty earned the trust of St. Louis manager Oli Marmol as the top setup arm in front of star closer Ryan Helsley. He worked 70 2/3 innings with a 2.80 earned run average. Kittredge punched out a league average 23.3% of batters faced while limiting walks to a modest 7% clip. He missed bats on an above-average 13.7% of his pitches while doing a reasonable job keeping the ball on the ground.
Kittredge, who turns 35 shortly before Opening Day, isn’t a flamethrower. He worked in the 94-95 MPH range with both his sinker and four-seam fastball. That’s solid velocity but by no means exceptional for a modern late-inning reliever. Kittredge’s specialty is beating hitters with a plus slider. He turned to the breaking ball around half the time.
Opponents hit .177 against the pitch while swinging through it more than 40% of the time that they offered at it. He particularly excelled at getting hitters to go out of the zone. Opponents swung at nearly 42% of the pitches that Kittredge threw outside the strike zone. Among pitchers with 50+ innings, only Arizona left-hander Joe Mantiply got chases at a higher rate.
The one knock against Kittredge last season was a problematic platoon split. Pitchers who lean on a slider-sinker mix often struggle with opposite-handed hitters. That was certainly the case for Kittredge. He stifled right-handed batters to a .188/.247/.291 line in 183 plate appearances. Lefties teed off at a .296/.337/.571 clip with six homers in 104 trips. His career platoon splits aren’t as drastic, but lefties have managed a solid .244/.320/.455 slash in more than 400 plate appearances against him. Baltimore has a trio of southpaws who are locks for bullpen spots if healthy: Akin, Gregory Soto and Cionel Pérez. That gives Hyde some options if he wants to shield Kittredge from opposing lineups’ best lefty bats.
Despite the vulnerability to southpaws, Kittredge has a strong multi-year track record. He debuted with the Rays in 2017 and spent parts of seven seasons in Kevin Cash’s bullpen. Kittredge worked in middle relief for the first few years but had a breakout showing in ’21. He fired a career-best 71 2/3 innings of 1.88 ERA ball to earn an All-Star selection. Kittredge injured his elbow early the following year and required Tommy John surgery. The timing of that procedure limited him to 31 appearances between 2022-23.
Tampa Bay flipped him to St. Louis last winter for outfielder Richie Palacios. Kittredge picked up where he’d left off pre-surgery during his only season with the Cardinals. He owns a 2.48 ERA across 162 appearances going back to the start of the ’21 season. That made him one of the better relievers in this year’s free agent class, though his age limited the contractual upside.
MLBTR ranked Kittredge the offseason’s #40 free agent. We predicted a two-year, $14MM pact covering his age 35-36 seasons. He falls short of the multi-year deal and that overall guarantee but secures a solid salary for the upcoming campaign. Kittredge is the third pitcher and the fourth free agent whom the O’s have signed to a one-year deal this winter. Baltimore has added Charlie Morton ($15MM), Tomoyuki Sugano ($13MM), and Gary Sánchez ($8.5MM) alongside their biggest acquisition — outfielder Tyler O’Neill on a three-year, $49.5MM contract that allows him to opt out after the first season.
The five free agent expenditures have added $63MM (including Kittredge’s option buyout) to next year’s payroll. Baltimore has certainly been a bigger player under first-year owner David Rubenstein than they were in recent years under John Angelos. The O’s have shied away from any significant long-term commitments, instead adding shorter-term veteran pieces around their prized position player core. RosterResource calculates their ’25 player payroll around $156MM, which would be their highest figure since 2017. O’Neill is their only player on a guaranteed contract that stretches beyond this year.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
That’s a nice payday!
Pitched pretty well, but had an extremely slow delivery which leaves the base paths wide open.
And … that slow delivery drives Fans up a wall!!! Ha!
I hope he and the Orioles do well!!!
Coupled with Adley and Sánchez’s average-on-their-best-day throwing arms and that’s not a great recipe for preventing runners from getting into scoring position in late-inning situations. I’m mostly positive about the Orioles 2025 chances but this is certainly one area of concern.
was hoping my dbacks got him. Nice move.
I think the D-Backs made out alright…
NYY needed this arm. They are in trouble. Without Soto in the line up everything changes. They need to be able to win 1&2 run games. Arms like thins help. They aren’t going to out slug teams with belly & Goldy hitting around AJ. Unless they both bounce back hugely.
They can still sign Alex bregman…
I would prefer having a bunch of 3-4 WAR players instead of one 8 WAR player
Truly stupid philosophy: clog the lineup with three guys who can produce what one player can.
O’s bullpen just got even better
Let’s hope his performance doesn’t decline at 35.
Yep. Solid move. A step in the right direction.
MLB is a bullpen game.
Some starters are fine if they can just keep the team in the game for 3-4 innings. “Aces” are overrated.
A strong bullpen which gives opposing batters different looks are far more effective…..particularly payroll budget-wise.
But hitting is what let them down last year. Adley, Westburg, Mullins, even Cowser had stretches of underperformance. Holliday was literally out of his league. O’s need more O!
The Os are not that strong fundamentally sound team they had 22-23. I don’t know how it happened.
Same players in ’23 as in ’24. Not sure how they lost their fundamentals. I will grant you that Cowser has terrible fundamentals. But one player should not bring the entire team’s fundamentals down greatly.
Mullins has declined significantly; Hays and
McKenna gone; Mateo was a better defender at SS than Henderson. Overall team defense is not as strong as it was in 22. Mateo and McKenna were spark plug type players. On paper, the team seems better but it doesn’t look as good on the field.
McKenna barely saw the field and he didn’t impact much when he did. Mateo’s still here.
Not sure which games you watched in 2022. McKenna absolutely made a difference in the games he played in.
He’d come in for Santander a lot in the 8th inning. I guess his horrendous drop was 2023 though.
Mateo was valuable. McKenna was fine for what he did. I think you could’ve gotten anyone with a decent glove and a bit of speed to do that.
Danny Coulombe replacement for more than double the price? I’ll be first in line for the David Rubenstein bobblehead giveaway
Orioles are done with injured pitchers!
Coulombe is a lefty. This is a Webb replacement.
Looks like you haven’t seen him. I wish the Rays still had him. Motion looks like he’s going to fall asleep, all of a sudden the ump’s raising his right hand.
You hit the Nail on the head!!!
Seems steep but we’ll see. He’s old AF.
David Robertson made 10 last year at age 39
…and he performed well.
That’s a damn good signing, O’s!
There is the bullpen move that had been rumored and it’s a pretty good one, and the club option is a nice bonus. Good stuff.
Good job, nice get!
Roster spot will open when Mountcastle and Kremer go to Seattle.
Ugh, Mariners could use a little bit more oomph in the batting dept. than just Mountcastle.
The idea in trading Castillo for two is that they get a fifth starter and at least a platoon upgrade/dh option to bolster the lineup while creating $15 mil. They could take that and a couple more bucks and get bregman.
Couple more bucks? Bregman is looking for seven years at $30 miillion per.
The idea lives in Os fans dream world. They turned down a substantially better package already
No they didn’t. Casas and Yoshida was horrendous for a team trying to clear payroll. And the talent there is not impressive with the extreme negative Yoshida value
How about 2 cheap pitchers for the Mariners
Suarez, Kremer, and Mounty!
In all honesty that might make the Mariners a better team. Both are better than Hancock and Mounty would give them a much needed lineup addition. If things go right then Gilbert, Kirby, Woo and Miller are the ones taking the ball in the postseason for them. Would give them salary space to do something else.
I doubt any of that happens and I’d much rather have Cease or Pablo Lopez.
Mountcastle’s 2024 was a virtual carbon copy of Julio’s. He’s a middle of the order bat for SEA.
Ha! Love the sentiment but no way Seattle moves him for Mountcastle and Kremer. They’re going to want to fish in our prospect pool…probably within Baltimore’s top 5-7.
Good deal for team and player
Oh brother… I guess Kimbrel wasn’t available, so Elias had to find someone else to waste money on.
Lotta money for a 7th/8th inning guy. These are the spots where a good pitching lab should be able to rehabilitate 2 or 3 reclamation projects per season for pennies on the dollar.
The orioles have done a very good job of that in recent years but this was a way to add a nice upgrade without spending the big bucks on an sp upgrade or top end rp.
He’s gonna be their closer bro
Bautista will be the closer…
This makes absolutely no sense. When NY/LA/BOS makes a move like this everyone says “great signing”. When the O’s or any other mid market team do it there’s always the moronic “that’s a steep price for a set up guy” comment.
I changed my mind. He’s old, but not bad. Makes me wonder, though, why Mike Elias is so fascinated by older guys.
Maybe he’s into “dad bods” who knows
Because he has an entire team of young guys to pay more in 2026-28.
Great deal for team and player. He basically got paid market value for one year and possibly two years, no more, though, because he’s on the older side, but he gets that sweet sweet eight figure guarantee that most guys dream of when they get drafted and called up.
As a Cardinal fan hate to lose him. Pretty reliable. Not great but good. Will have a few bad innings but overall pretty reliable. He did well getting paid as much as he did .
Totally agree and wish Kitt well. Cards made a mistake letting him go. They need a top 5 bullpen if while they give the youngsters a look this year. Without a lock down pen, it’ll be a very long year.
Very solid when healthy the last few years. If the Orioles can get to the later innings with the lead it looks better (atones for losing Coulombe). I’m a bit surprised at the $ given its the Orioles, but I guess they know him well seeing him in Tampa all that time.
Great, the Cardinals pay him $2.63 million last year and we give him $9 million. It must be nice to be a very average relief pitcher.
He’s better than average, and the huge raise is what happens when a player hits free agency for the first time.
Andrew Kittredge is one of the few (and perhaps the only) players in major league history traded twice during their career and each time for a different Richie.
You will definitely want to keep this in mind when you make the playoffs in the Professional Immaculate Grid League.
I really like Kittredge, but that price seems steep to me. That’s either $10 million for one year or $19 million for two years. His ERA was great, but he had a large gap between ERA and FIP. The FIP was pretty pedestrian.
It IS steep. Predicted to get a 2 year at $14 , he gets a one at $10. He’s not a closer, at most a set up. Overpay.
FIP doesn’t win games
It is an indicator for future success.
It is not. Even the acolytes have disavowed the original claim that it was predictive of future ERA. It is only predictive of future FIP, not of future ERA. Thus it is useless. If you are going to use a modern metric in lieu of ERA, use xERA.
Gut reaction was that I didn’t like it.
Thought about it and I’m ok with it. He has a high spin slider that he pairs with a sinker. Different look from the right handed flame throwers we have down there. It’s fine.
Setting up to have a huge roster turnover year over year. Potentially 4 relievers are free agents next year.
Well 6 major league pitchers could be free agents next offseason. That’s a significant amount.
None of these moves will hurt for long. I wonder if this is it for now. Can’t imagine another arm is coming in without a trade to clear out a projected major leaguer. (Kremer or Suarez would be my guess)
Guessing Baker is the guy who gets pushed off the 40 man now since he’s out of options and now has absolutely no chance of making the pen.
About time. Baker is one of those guys who’s irritating to watch pitch regardless of what his stats and peripherals say, and it inspires no confidence to see him coming out of the pen in any situation.
Absolutely. I’ll be happy to see him go. I’m surprised he made it past rule 5 cutoffs.
Another non-exciting signing. If the pretty good relievers available this was not the guy they should have signed. I hope everything works out for post season run, but Elias is begging the fans at this point to question if he knows anything other than how to draft #1 picks.
I like the way the “On the Verge” podcast guys referred to the Morton signing… it’s an order of operations problem like in math class.
If they had announced the TOR acquisition first and then Morton (or in this case, a signing to the ‘pen), then fans would be plenty happy. But this and the Morton and Sugano signings coming first feels a bit different.
I agree, they’re all solid signings but would be much better as additions after sorting out the top of the rotation to replace Burnes.
Until that happens (hopefully), just feels like a new missing tooth… your tongue goes back to the hole over and over again.
You mean like Gunnar? Or Westburg? Mayo? Basallo? Or players who have trade value like Joey Ortiz, Norby and Stowers?
Decent signing. Will have to protect him a little due to platoon splits which makes me nervous. I’ve not been impressed by how they utilize the bullpen for the last year.Im glad they arent taking the bullpen for granted since i dont think its as good as they think it is. Can be dominant but inconsistent and shouldnt put too much pressure on bautista coming off of injury. Hopefully this doesnt stop them from upgrading the rotation further.
I love how 94 95 is not a flamethrower.
Great offseason of orioles ! Have a new owner committed to spend ! Preserving prospect capital ! Filling all your needs with quality veterans to accompany young core ! Future looks bright
The one who pitched in 74 games last year? Yeah, sure…. whatever
He had TJ, dumbshtt. Like so many other pitchers. And the 8 appearances were in the Covid shortened season, idiot.
@chem
Thanks for another satisfying mute.
Sit in the corner and rant to your imaginary friends.
Wrong. I’m from his hometown (Bakersfield). Friends of his were saying all along he was going to either Arizona (where he resides) or a west coast team to be closer to home. It was already reported he took less money to sign with the D-Backs.
But they aren’t spending. Don’t be fooled by a $10m contract. We’re not living in the 1990s anymore. Just because the Orioles are forced to to fill out the roster with Live bodies and must pay going rate, that doesn’t equal being bold and going out to get a big name. So far the orioles have not made a big signing with new ownership.
It’s their forth signing of the offseason at 10mil plus. More than nearly every other franchise while addressing team needs. Many other fans wish their team has spent like Os this offseason!
The O’s gave themselves the flexibility to sign guys next offseason that they like better.
I think the goal was a burnes/Snell but when that didn’t happen they pivoted to the best group of 1 year deals they could do to keep payroll space for next year.
I hope we’re not just making excuses for Elias I hope we sign big name guys in the future and sign our own to long extension. So far none of that has happened.
They offered Burnes a huge contract but he wanted to be with his family above all us. Can’t blame Elias or Rubenstein for that. I wouldn’t have signed Fried with his TJ on the horizon. I don’t think Soto wanted to be anywhere by NY or LA. Eovaldi stayed in Texas, close to his current home and where he grew up. Exactly who were the FAs you wanted to sign to long-term FA contracts? PS: the only player to lock up is Gunnar. They may be able to get him to commit to ~ 2 years into his FA years by guaranteeing his Arb years. Would make a lot of sense for both sides.
All the MLB teams are “losers.” I don’t think you could be a stupider troll.
I think burnes wanted to be back home he lives in Arizona and the rest of what you said made no sense only to you I guess
You combine your ignorance of the English language, your ignorance of baseball and your bigotry to boil a mighty stinky shtt stew.
Well dumbfuck, Burnes, his wife and three little kids like in Scottsdale, 12 miles from Chase Field. After she gave birth last Summer, Burnes frequently flew home to be with his family. No East Coast team – not the Orioles not the Mets not the Yankers, etc. – had a chance of signing him. He wanted to be at home with him family, case closed. PS: Keep your racism and sexism to yourself, scumbag.
Solid move!!
This is the one guy the cardinals should have kept
Excellent pick up. 29 other teams will regret not getting him.
The Oriole fans will like his work. Good signing.
I’m still pretty worried about the Orioles hitting. Westbury, Adley, and Holliday absolutely disappeared after June. Holliday was understandable, given his age and experience. Completely overmatched. And they lose Santander? O’Neil isn’t going to replace his offense.
Westburg of course.
Unless this pitching staff really over-performs, Orioles aren’t catching the Yankees.
If the hitting performs like they did in the 1st half of last year and Mayo,Holiday,Kjerstad,ect perform at expectation they’ll catch them easily with just average pitching. That part is yet to be seen, they have the talent, in theory I suppose. It seems like a big unknown at the moment though if a lot of those guys end up mostly struggling and don’t pan out, minor league track record doesn’t always translate but they certainly all have it.
Ha! The Yankers have no offense beyond Judge. The Yankers might finish sub .500
I think the NYY SP rotation is overrated
but with their offense most games it won’t matter.
Westburg was the most reliable hitter on the team all year. He didn’t disappear. He got injured
It’s still Gunnar who was most productive, but your point about Westburg’s injury is indisputable.
It’s hard to hit well when you are on the IL with a broken hand, e.g. Westburg.
This is an underrated pickup. It’s a solid score for the O’s.
Good for him! He’ll help the Orioles. Meanwhile, the Cardinals Billionaire owner, Bill DeWallet, does nothing but count his money.