Andrew Kittredge is familiar with many of the Orioles from his seven seasons pitching for the division-rival Tampa Bay Rays. He grew close to new starter Charlie Morton while they were teammates, and they’ll be reunited in Baltimore.

Kittredge signed his one-year contract that guarantees $10 million and includes an option for 2026 after Morton agreed to a one-year deal for $15 million. Ten days separated the transactions.

“Just a fierce competitor,” Kittredge said of Morton during yesterday’s video call with local media. “Charlie is all business when it comes to baseball. I have a really good memory of a Wild Card game that he pitched in in Oakland. I think it was 2019, and just that atmosphere there in Oakland was electric. It was one of the loudest places I had been at that time in my career, and it was just fun to watch him compete and almost seemingly just kind of outcompete his opponent. But that's what he brings.

“He's intense but he’s focused and he's a great guy to have in the clubhouse. He's a little quieter, he's a little reserved, but when he speaks it kind of speaks volumes. So he's a great guy to have around for leadership, but also just someone who's been there and been doing it for a really long time.”

Kittredge was an All-Star in 2021 and finished with a 1.88 ERA and 0.977 WHIP in 57 games before his Tommy John surgery. The Mariners drafted him in the 45^th round in 2008 and couldn’t sign him, but they got him as an amateur free agent three years later. He was traded to the Rays in November 2016, became a free agent and signed with them in December 2020.

You don’t go into this annual exercise planning to vote for a certain number of players. I’ve been a Hall of Fame voter for 15 years now, and the number of candidates who got a check mark next to their names has wildly varied in that time. I’ve voted for the maximum 10 players before (and probably would’ve voted for an 11th at least once if allowed). I’ve voted for seven players before. I’ve voted for five players before. I’ve voted for three players before.

It’s never been about the final number of check marks. It’s always been about the individual case of each player on the ballot, which some years has produced only a few yes votes and other years has produced a lot.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t enter the voting process this year planning to only select two candidates. I had a hunch the number would be relatively low, but I didn’t expect it to be this low. When I finished the process and realized I only selected two players, I didn’t feel great about it. I decided to re-examine several of my no votes and see if I could come up with a valid reason to change my mind. In the end, I did not.

This evening’s announcement, though, that three players were elected to the Hall of Fame by receiving at least 75 percent support from 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will cause me to do some real soul searching over the next 12 months. While I’ve admittedly held a higher Cooperstown standard than many of my colleagues for a long time now, I’ve never felt badly about that before. But I may need to reconsider that standard now.

Ichiro Suzuki, Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia all were elected to the Hall of Fame tonight, and I only voted for two of them. That’s great for them, troubling for me.

It was an eventful holiday weekend. Well, not for the Nationals, who were quiet. But there was no shortage of news elsewhere, in the baseball world, in both the professional and collegiate football world and of course in the world in general.

And if you can stomach any more, there’s going to be significant baseball news later today. It’s Hall of Fame election day, when we find out which former players earned enough support from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to secure enshrinement in Cooperstown this summer.

As always, I’ll publish my ballot and explainer column after the official announcement at 6 p.m. Eastern. But to whet your appetite for what’s to come – or if you simply haven’t had a chance to pay much attention leading into tonight’s announcement – here’s a quick primer on the 2025 ballot and what to watch for this evening …

* HOW CLOSE TO 100 PERCENT DOES ICHIRO GET?
The most obvious, slam-dunk candidate on this year’s ballot is Ichiro Suzuki, who should have no trouble getting elected in his first attempt. The only real question is if the Japanese hitting machine gets unanimous support, or something really close to it. Who wouldn’t vote for Ichiro? Perhaps someone who holds it against him that his major league career didn’t begin until 27 (even though he still surpassed 3,000 hits with the late start following his time at home in Japan). But there can’t be too many holdouts. Mariano Rivera remains the only player ever elected with 100 percent support. Maybe Ichiro joins him tonight?

* DOES WAGNER FINALLY GET OVER THE HUMP?
Billy Wagner appears on the BBWAA ballot for the 10th time. He’s not allowed to appear an 11th time. Way back in 2016, he received only 10.5 percent support. By 2024, he was all the way up to 73.8 percent, a mere 1.2 percent shy. It would be an awfully cruel twist to get that close and then still come up short in his 10th and final attempt. Voting history suggests that won’t happen. Pretty much everyone who gets that close eventually gets over the hump. But it’ll still make for a high-stress afternoon for Wagner as he awaits that long-awaited call.

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