Back in January, the O’s signed reliever Andrew Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM deal. They haven’t yet received any return on that investment but that may soon change, since he’s currently on a rehab assignment.
“All good news with how he’s throwing the baseball and how he feels,” said manager Brandon Hyde, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. “I think he throws again this weekend and then he’ll do a back-to-back and maybe another one. We’ll see how it goes.”
Kittredge required a left knee debridement procedure in March and has been on the 15-day injured list all year so far. He’s now made four rehab appearances, the last three being scoreless Triple-A outings. Based on Hyde’s comments, it seems he’ll get into a few more games and should join the Baltimore bullpen after that.
The righty had a 2.80 earned run average in 70 2/3 innings with the Cardinals last year. His 23% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 45.2% ground ball rate were all solid figures. If he can get back to that level of performance, he’ll be a nice upgrade to the relief corps. However, it might require a tough decision on who goes out. The only members of the bullpen who are optionable are the high-leverage arms: Félix Bautista, Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin. That could put pressure on a struggling pitcher like Cionel Pérez or Charlie Morton, who both have ERAs north of 8.00.
Regardless of that decision, it’s possible that Kittredge could eventually emerge as a trade candidate this summer, if he performs well after being reinstated from the IL. The O’s are now 15-27 and will have to engineer a big winning streak to avoid being deadline sellers. Kittredge’s deal contains a $9MM club option for 2026 with a $1MM buyout.
Kubatko also relayed a minor update on outfielder Colton Cowser, saying that he did some “light outfield work” yesterday. He suffered a broken thumb just a few days into the season, an injury which came with a timeline of six to eight weeks.
He was subsequently transferred to the 60-day IL, so he’s not eligible to return until late May, though that doesn’t seem likely even though it’s been over six weeks now. He will presumably need to ramp up his activities further before even beginning a rehab assignment. Kubatko notes that the injured thumb is still wrapped in a brace. For now, the Orioles will continue with the outfield mix consisting largely of Cedric Mullins, Ramón Laureano, Tyler O’Neill and Heston Kjerstad.
The club also announced to reporters, including Kubatko, that pitching prospect Patrick Reilly had UCL surgery yesterday. The O’s didn’t provide a timeline for Reilly but he’ll surely be sidelined into the middle of the 2026 season.
Acquired from the Pirates last summer in a deal which sent Billy Cook the other way, Reilly has been with Double-A Bowie since the deal. He has logged 41 innings for the Baysox with a 3.29 ERA. For his entire minor league career, he now has 139 2/3 innings with a 3.54 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate and 12.3% walk rate.
Coming into 2025, Baseball America ranked him the #16 prospect in the Orioles’ system while FanGraphs had him at #25. He’ll be eligible for the Rule 5 draft in December of 2026 if not protected before then, but he’ll spend most of the intervening time rehabbing from this surgery.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images