Andrew Kittredge hasn’t experience a particularly normal stretch in his two stints with the Orioles.

Kittredge signed a $10 million deal with the Orioles on Jan. 13, 2025 and began the season on the injured list after undergoing a debridement procedure on his left knee. He never pitched for manager Brandon Hyde, who was fired four days before Kittredge appeared in his first game.

Weird, right?

The Orioles traded Kittredge to the Cubs at the deadline and re-acquired him on Nov. 4 for cash considerations. They exercised his $9 million option, but had to put him on the IL again with right shoulder inflammation.

Kittredge was reinstated on Friday, again delaying his debut.

Oh yeah, and his rehab assignment with Triple-A Norfolk was interrupted while he was on paternity leave.

Reports that Kittredge left the Tides for the birth of his third child were half true. His family welcomed twin boys.

Otherwise, it’s been pretty routine for the veteran right-hander.

Kittredge retired the three batters he faced in the seventh inning of Friday night’s 10-3 win over the Red Sox, an outing that drew less attention because the Orioles belted six home runs and pounded out 20 hits. He was reduced to note status.

It meant more to the guy who waited until the 26th game of the season to put on the uniform.

“It was great,” he said. “You know, starting the year on the IL is not anything I’ve ever wanted to do and I don’t think anybody wants to. It feels like you’re almost just kind of behind right out of the gate, which was, I guess, frustrating for me. But throughout the rehab process, I felt better every time out and I was happy to have a nice one when I got back here.”

The results are much more favorable in Baltimore, including a three-up, three-down ninth inning yesterday. Kittredge wasn’t judged by his numbers with Norfolk, even the 15.19 ERA and 2.813 WHIP in 5 1/3 innings. He tried to ignore them and concentrate on the shoulder. Runs, hit and walks weren’t as important as whether he felt 100 percent recovered.

“It’s hard to do sometimes,” he said with a chuckle. “I mean, I try not to put too much into that, but you also want to see yourself being successful, and a lot of my outings in Triple-A didn’t go well. Fortunately, I think I did a pretty good job of taking what I needed to out of them and not trying to focus on the fact that I was getting hit around. But felt better every time out, and some things kind of started to click towards the end, where I was confident that it was gonna translate to being activated here.”

The Orioles aren’t big on timelines and Kittredge didn’t set a specific date as a goal to return after being shut down in camp.

“It was essentially because my spring got taken away, we kind of almost treated it like how many outings would you typically get in spring training? What are you gonna need to build up? We kind of reverse engineered the calendar from that,” he said.

“I think there was an expectation that it could have been a little bit earlier. Kind of had the hiccup with my wife and I welcoming twins a week ago. So I had to pause the rehab, go home for that. We weren’t really sure when that was gonna happen, because twins, they said it could be a month early, two weeks. Ended up being three weeks early So that kind of put a little wrinkle in the rehab, but super blessed to have those boys.”

Jett and Elijah – Eli for short – join brothers Brooks and Griffin in the expanded family. Their ages range from almost 7 years to two weeks.

Kittredge hasn’t really gotten to experience life as a twins dad. One of the babies had to spend a few extra days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Kittredge needed to get back, but he was given assurances that everything would be fine.

“They just needed to kind of cross some T’s and dot some I’s kind of things,” Kittredge said. “He’s home now. But very limited time that I got to be with them both at the same time.”

Kittredge was heading to the airport after the Rays recalled him from Triple-A Durham earlier in the day when he received the call that wife Tobey was in labor with Brooks. Life is an adventure. Kittredge can fully endorse that theory.

He’s also learned how to immerse himself fully in the job while his wife and kids are living so far away in Spokane.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I feel like over the course of my career I’ve done a pretty good job of leaving home at home, and when I’m at the field, it’s time to play ball.

“I’m definitely thinking about them. I’m just more excited about the whole thing than anything. It’s just cool. A family of six now, which is weird to say out loud.”

Tobey is the MVP in that household. Kittredge concedes the title. He knows that she’s earned it.

“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “Shoot, I don’t know how she did it with two before.

“We’re blessed. I’m just super happy about it and excited.”

Notes: The Orioles will be making the following minor league moves:

Right-hander Kiefer Lord is being promoted to High-A Frederick.
Right-hander Juaron Watts-Brown is returning from rehab and joining Double-A Chesapeake.
Right-hander Hans Crouse is returning from rehab and joining.

Lord was a third-round draft pick in 2023 out of the University of Washington. He missed the 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and has struck out 32 batters in 17 innings this year with Class A Delmarva.

*The Orioles Farm Report debuts tonight at 8 p.m. on MASN. 

The program is a monthly deep dive into the organization’s minor league system with hosts Brendan Mortensen and Annie Klaff and includes exclusive interviews with top prospects, as well as insights from minor league experts around the game.