Former St. Louis Cardinals reliever projected to land with the Athletics

Jason Burke | Nov 8, 2024

Jun 28, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andrew Kittredge (27) throws against the Cincinnati Reds during the eighth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Le-Imagn Images / Jeff Le-Imagn Images

The Athletics will be looking to make some incremental upgrades this winter as they attempt to reach the .500 mark in 2025, and one of the players they could be targeting is former Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Andrew Kittredge.

MLB Trade Rumors recently released their annual predictions for where the top 50 free agents will land, and Kittredge, ranked at No. 40, was one of the players that received at least one vote to sign with the A's at a projected two year deal for $14 million total. The Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Texas Rangers were also projected fits for the right-hander.

Kittredge, 34, has a career 3.44 ERA, and held a 2.80 this past season pitching out of the Cardinals 'pen. That said, his FIP was a bit higher, as it has typically been throughout his career, sitting at 3.96 last season and 3.87 for his career.

He was just slightly below average in terms of strikeout rate for a reliever at 23.1% (23.4% was league average in 2024), but his walk rate of 7% was solid, and well below league average (9%).

He excelled at getting hitters to chase, ranking in the 100th percentile in the category with a 38.9% rate. His whiff rate (27.8%) ranked in the 69th percentile, and his ground ball rate (45.5%) ranked in the 66th percentile. With the A's headed to Sacramento in 2025, those types of attributes could be sought after by the organization, since the less contact that is being made by opposing bats, the less likely they are to have a soft fly ball go over the fence in a minor-league park.

According to Baseball Savant, Kittredge has potentially switched up his pitch mix from recent years, going from a four-seam, slider, sinker approach in 2022-23 to adding a cutter to that mix in 2024. The cutter was only thrown six times all season, so that could have also been a half-dozen lousy sliders that were counted as cutters. That happens too.

After two seasons with ERAs just over three with Tampa, Kittredge also switched up his pitch mix to be pretty similar to what he threw in 2021, when he held a 1.88 ERA, using his slider most frequently (49%), followed by his sinker (38%) and the four-seamer accounting for the rest.

Like recently re-signed T.J. McFarland, Kittredge would bring some veteran experience to the A's bullpen, and given that he has tossed 70+ innings in the two seasons since 2021 that he was fully healthy, that would be a huge swath of innings that could be accounted for as the front office attempts to patch together enough pitching to get through an entire season.

If the projected contract of two years and $14 million turns out to be accurate and the he's willing to play in Sacramento, this could be a good match for the two sides. Plus, if he works out well either in the first half of the deal, or at some point before the 2026 trade deadline, the Athletics could also use him as a trade piece down the line.