Athletics sign right-handed reliever Trevor Gott to major league contract

Update: Per Ken Rosenthal, Gott's deal with the Athletics is for $1.5 million in 2024. Gott can earn an additional $50k for making 45 appearances, and another $50k for making 50 appearances. He'll earn $100k if the Athletics trade him.

Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Oakland Athletics have agreed to a major league deal with right-handed reliever Trevor Gott.

The 31 year old Gott split time between the Mariners and the Mets in 2023, throwing 58 innings total with a 4.19 ERA. The deal is for one year, though the total salary is unannounced to this point.

The move puts the Athletics at 41 players on the 40 man roster, meaning they'll have to DFA someone or make a trade to make room for Gott.

It feels unlikely that the A's will use Gott in high-leverage spots in 2024. The righty has never had an ERA below 4.14 in a full season, and doesn't have elite velocity or strikeout stuff. He has a five pitch mix, primarily relying on his cutter, sinker, and four-seamer, and he sprinkles in a curveball and changeup.

Because he doesn't have top-tier strikeout stuff, Gott relies on mixing his pitches and moving them around the zone to induce weak contact. He's done well the past two years to avoid hard contact and getting batters to swing over the cutter, and drive the sinker into the ground.

If he's able to continue to induce weak contact and limit home runs, Gott could be an effective 7th or 8th inning reliever for the A's in 2024.

Thankfully for GM David Forst and the A's, Gott should be had pretty cheap. He was set to make an estimated $1.5 million in his final year of arbitration in 2024, but he was non-tendered by the Mets a couple weeks ago.

We wrote last week that the A's might be done for the year on the pitching side, but that clearly was not the case. Forst has mentioned that the A's have a little bit of payroll room to work with this offseason, so another addition or two wouldn't be surprising.

The A's had one of the worst pitching staffs in the majors in 2023, posting a combined 5.48 ERA, good for 29th in the league. The loss of Trevor May to retirement might be a detriment, but the A's should have top prospect Mason Miller available out of the pen all season.

If Gott can retain some of the success he's had over the past two years, it'll be a decent boost for a struggling A's club.