A's Calling Up Former New York Mets Reliever for Team Debut
Right-handed reliever Vinny Nittoli will be in Oakland on Tuesday, according to Jessica Kleinschmidt of Awful Announcing. Nittoli spent the second half of last season with the New York Mets after being traded to the Big Apple for future considerations.
Nittoli, 33, has had brief stints in the big leagues the past three seasons, spanning a total of 6 2/3 innings. He holds a 4.05 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP in that span.
This season in Triple-A with the Las Vegas Aviators, Nittoli has posted a 2.70 ERA (4.15 FIP) with a 36% strikeout rate and an 11% walk rate. With the Seattle Mariners coming to town, adding another reliever with a high strikeout rate is probably wise. The M's rank last in MLB in strikeout rate at 27.7% as a team.
Nittoli was also originally drafted by Seattle back in 2014 out of Xavier in the 25th round.
The righty is predominantly a cutter/curveball pitcher, using his cutter 47% of the time, and the curve 35% in his last outing on June 1. He also mixed in a couple of four seamers and a slider. His hardest offering is that cutter at 89.6, followed by the heater at 87.8. The other two pitches were in the low 80's.
Since the call-up is not official, we don't know the corresponding move just yet. The A's have four left-handers in the bullpen at the moment, and two of them have three minor-league options remaining in Jack O'Loughlin and Brady Basso. Sending one of them down would clear a spot on the 26-man roster.
The tricky part here is that Nittoli doesn't have a spot on the 40-man either, which means someone on the IL will be transferred to the 60-day, or someone else on the roster will be DFA'd. They could go a number of different directions with that decision, so we'll have to wait and see which path they choose.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.