For the second time this offseason, the Cardinals have added relief pitching depth by parting ways with an outfielder.
The Cardinals traded outfielder Richie Palacios to the Tampa Bay Rays for right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge on Friday evening, a swap that adds coveted bullpen help and further alleviates what had become a crowded outfield in St. Louis. The deal comes roughly one month after the organization traded Tyler O’Neill to the Boston Red Sox, landing right-handed reliever Nick Robertson in the process. Addressing both the bullpen and the outfield congestion had become a top priority for president of baseball operations John Mozeliak over the last few weeks.
Kittredge, who had spent all seven of his big-league seasons with Tampa Bay, was an All-Star in 2021 but underwent Tommy John surgery midway through the following season. He returned to the Rays in mid-August and made 14 appearances, posting a 3.09 ERA over 11 2/3 innings. By trading Palacios — who as an outfielder and left-handed hitter was going to be on the outside looking in for a roster spot — the Cardinals added another high-upside reliever, a trait that has now become the theme of their bullpen.
“We are excited to add Andrew’s experience and proven abilities to our bullpen,” Mozeliak said in a press release. “Prior to his elbow injury, Andrew was an All-Star reliever, and we think his addition will benefit us greatly now that he is back to full health.”
We have acquired RHP Andrew Kittredge from Tampa Bay in exchange for OF Richie Palacios.
Kittredge, a 2021 American League All-Star, has compiled a career 3.65 ERA in 181 major league appearances.#STLCards pic.twitter.com/vJyLLVl67E
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) January 5, 2024
Kittredge will join a relief corps that features Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos in the back end, with JoJo Romero as the leading internal candidate to round out late-inning opportunities. He is the fourth reliever the Cardinals have acquired this offseason and the one with the most major-league experience. In addition to Robertson, St. Louis also added Nick Fernandez (acquired from Boston in the Rule 5 draft) and Riley O’Brien (traded for cash considerations from the Seattle Mariners in November).
There are reasons to believe Kittredge can be a high-leverage weapon, particularly when looking at his advanced metrics. In his All-Star season, Kittredge posted a 1.88 ERA and 0.997 WHIP over 57 appearances, recording a career-high 9.7 strikeout-per-nine-inning ratio in the process. But the traits that made Kittredge particularly effective were his 40.7 percent chase rate (which ranked in the top percentile of the majors that year) and his 5.3 percent walk rate. While his sample size in 2023 was much smaller, the metrics are nearly the same. Kittredge recorded a 41.7 percent chase rate and walked just two of the 50 batters he faced. Kittredge uses a sinker-and-slider combination that induces ground-ball contact (a trait the Cardinals have routinely been high on), but his ability to generate swings-and-misses outside of the zone and keep runners off base makes those ground balls less risky.
St. Louis spent the last four weeks looking to bolster its relief pitching. The Cardinals were widely linked to the free-agent route and were targeting pitchers in line for an annual average value of around $5 million. It is not clear if the Cardinals will continue pursuing free-agent relief options now that they have added Kittredge, but the team has been linked to trade interest in right-handed starting pitcher Dylan Cease.
In terms of transactions, the Cardinals have been one of the busier teams in what has been a slow winter for baseball. They filled the rotation early with Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, and have cleared out the outfield by trading O’Neill and Palacios, leaving Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker and Dylan Carlson with defined roles coming into spring training. Their moves have not been splashy (with the exception of Gray’s three-year, $75 million deal), but they were needed, especially considering how much of the roster needed to be addressed.
But it is fair to question if these moves will be enough to transform a ball club coming off its worst season in 30 years into a playoff contender. Mozeliak has been high on his position-playing core dating back to the beginning of the offseason, and offensive production isn’t much of a concern heading into the new season. Pitching has been a different story. The Cardinals have added innings to their rotation and high-potential arms to their bullpen. With five weeks remaining until pitchers and catchers report, the question they must now ask themselves is: Will that be enough?
(Photo of Andrew Kittredge: Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today)