A's Sign Former New York Mets Reliever

The Oakland A's have signed Trevor Gott, who could be a late inning option for the club in 2024

According to Ken Rosenthal, relief pitcher Trevor Gott has agreed to a one year deal with the Oakland A's. Gott will be in his age 31 season in Oakland and holds a 4.64 career ERA. 

A's fans may remember him from the rough back-to-back outings he had against Oakland back in 2020 as a member of the San Francisco Giants. The first came on August 14 when he allowed five earned in 1/3 of an inning which included a Matt Olson home run and a Stephen Piscotty grand slam to tie the game in the top of the ninth. The A's had been trailing 7-2 when the ninth began. They ended up winning 8-7 in ten innings.

The second rough outing was the very next day he entered up 6-3 and allowed four earned while recording two outs and leading to another Giants loss. Sean Murphy and Mark Canha hit the home runs off Gott.

Outside of that season which was destroyed by those two outings, he's been roughly a league average pitcher that can eat innings and throw strikes. He split 2023 between the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners, racking up 58 innings and holding a combined 4.19 ERA with a 23.8% strikeout rate while walking 7.3% of the batters he faced. 

He also had a five-pitch mix last season, working primarily with a cutter, sinker and four-seam combo while mixing in a curveball and changeup on occasion. His sinker and four-seam sit at right about 94 (93.8) while his cutter averaged 89. 

According to Gott's Baseball Savant page, he excelled at limiting the ball from finding the barrel of the bat last season, ranking in the 92nd percentile in barrel%. He was also in the 80th percentile in expected ERA (xERA) with a 3.45. 

Is this the sexiest signing? No. But Gott help bring some veteran experience to a team that could desperately use some, especially among the pitching staff. He can throw strikes and could even feasibly be a late-inning option for the club to begin the year.