Andrew Kittredge

Kittredge was one of the biggest surprises of the 2021 season given how his 2020 season ended. He walked off the mound in early August with a sprained UCL, was outrighted off the roster and became a free agent. Nobody was interested in "damaged goods," but Kittredge did avoid Tommy John surgery and came back to the Rays on a minor-league deal. He pitched so well in camp that he made the club and had an amazing season which included making the All-Star team. The sinker/slider approach peppers the edges of the strike zone and is particularly tough on righties while being tough to elevate overall. His slider is an elite offering with a 41% Whiff rate that he will throw at any point in the count. It is expected he will once again be manager Kevin Cash's favorite Swiss Army Knife and be used all over the late innings, garnering more wins and saves with solid ratios as long as the elbow continues to hold up. He is why all players with elbow injuries don't immediately opt for TJS.

Kittredge made his big-league season debut in mid-June and remained with the Rays the rest of the year, throwing a career-high 49.2 innings. His 4.17 ERA was nothing special, but it hid some strong peripherals which led to a 3.56 FIP and a 3.25 xFIP. His 27.6% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 50.0% groundball rate were all solidly better than the league average. The righty's improvement from his 7.75 ERA in 2018 was dramatic, but given how extensively his repertoire changed, it's easy to buy that it's sustainable. He added a sinker, throwing it 40.2 percent of the time. He also saw his fastball velocity jump from 93.1mph to 95.0 mph while his slider velocity jumped from 84.6 mph to 88.3. The new version of Kittredge should be able to fill a useful role for the Rays this season, but he's still a level below being a candidate for the closing role he'd need to be a significant fantasy asset.

Kittredge headed up a bullpen game in Tampa Bay's third game of the season and went on to make 32 additional appearances (two additional "starts") over the remainder of the season, covering no more than 2.1 innings in any of those outings. The slider remained Kittredge's primary pitch, but he cut its usage down from 71% to 54.7% and instead relied more heavily on his fastball. The altered mix was mostly unsuccessful as Kittredge's fastball velocity was down, his Ks were down as well and his walks and homers were up (the homers especially). The Rays outrighted Kittredge off the 40-man roster after the season but he remains in the organization.

Kittredge is an interesting player. He throws his fastball close to 95 mph on average, but it basically never gets by hitters. In fact, he had just a 1.4 percent whiff rate with the fastball last season, according to Brooks Baseball. He only threw it 29 percent of the time in his first opportunity in the big leagues last year, instead relying primarily on his slider, which does generate swinging strikes unlike the fastball. Kittredge issued too many free passes with the Rays last year, but his history on the farm points to improvement ahead -- he's had identical 2.1 BB/9 marks at the Triple-A level over the past two seasons. The Tampa Bay bullpen is unsettled and Kittredge could rise through the ranks with more refinement, but first things first: he needs to lock down a roster spot in spring training.