Mariners add to left-handed reliever depth with September waiver pickup

The Mariners added a new name to the 40-man roster, lefty Austin Kitchen, who was claimed off of waivers from the Marlins. To make room for him Jason Vosler was designated for assignment.

Kitchen spent most of 2024 in Triple-A, pitching 24.2 innings for the Albuquerque Isotopes in the Rockies system and most recently tossed 15.2 innings with the Jacksonville Jump Shrimp in the Marlins system. His cumulative ERA over the 40.1 innings was 3.35 with a 1.12 WHIP and 5.58 K/9.

A sinkerballer, he also relies on a mix of breaking balls. His slider is perhaps the most impressive, boasting a strikeout rate of 35.7% and a 0.00 ERA while thrown in Triple-A. His curveball and changeup have not been as effective but have both been thrown more frequently than his sweeper/slider.

Not much of a velocity guy, his fastballs sit right around 90 mph and top out in the low 90s. It might be the reason his sinker only had a strikeout rate of 9.2% but it's been effective at inducing ground balls. His sinker had an average launch angle of -3.8 degrees and a ground-ball rate of 67.6%. He struggled to be effective while in Triple-A Albuquerque but after moving to Triple-A Jacksonville, his sinker ERA went from 5.06 to 1.17 at the cost of a much higher walk rate. Overall though, his command has been great, walking just 6.8% of batters.

So what can the Mariners expect out of him? He had a cup of coffee with the Marlins this year, posting a 14.14 ERA over seven innings of relief, a pretty clear sign that he isn't yet ready to throw at the major league level. His last appearance was on September 6th and it saw him give up six earned runs in just two innings against the Phillies.

While he definitely hasn't enough had time to make major adjustments, it should be noted that the outings in which he performed the worst were appearances longer than a single inning. It seems that he was initially being groomed as a long reliever since his unremarkable stuff likely prevented him from being a high-leverage weapon. In fact, of the 28 total games played in Triple-A, he faced three or fewer batters in just six of them. In those appearances, he didn't give up a single hit.

Thus it seems the best bet would be for the Mariners to use him as the first arm out of the bullpen. He's been great when pitching single innings but seems to deteriorate and become more hittable the longer he stays on the mound. His pitch-to-contact style and good command can help set up higher-leverage guys like Andrés Muñoz. With Gabe Speier likely to stay in the minors for a while, he'll join Tayler Saucedo and Jhonathan Díaz as the only lefties on the team.