Zack Littell

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Zack Stuart Littell

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Zack Littell was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 11th round of the 2013 amateur draft. He spent his first four professional seasons in the Mariners' organization, his best year coming in 2016 when he was a combined 13-6, 2.66 between the Clinton LumberKings and the Bakersfield Blaze. On November 18, 2016, he was traded to the New York Yankees in return for P James Pazos.

His 2017 season was absolutely outstanding, as he finished with a record of 19-1, 2.12 while pitching for three different teams. He started off by going 9-1, 1.77 in 13 games for the Tampa Yankees. He then was promoted to the Trenton Thunder of the AA Eastern League, where he went 5-0, 2.05 in 7 games. On July 30th, he was traded again, this time to the Minnesota Twins, along with Dietrich Enns in return for P Jaime Garcia. He finished the year with the Chattanooga Lookouts, in the Southern League, going 5-0, 2.81 in 7 games.

In 2018, he started the year Back with Chattanooga, where he was 0-3, 5.87. Part of this may have been deception at returning to a level he had clearly mastered the previous year. On May 4th, he was brought up to the AAA Rochester Red Wings. He was 1-1, 2.57 in 5 games and on June 5th was promoted again, this time to the major league Twins who needed an extra pitcher for a doubleheader. He started the second game against the Chicago White Sox but gave up 6 runs in 3 innings and was charged with his team's 6-3 loss. He made 8 appearances for the Twins that season, including 2 starts, going 0-2, 6.20.

Zack then spent most of the next two seasons in the majors with the Twins, going 6-0, 2.68 in 29 games in 2019 and 0-0, 9.65 in 6 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The Twins made the postseason both years and he pitched twice in their loss to the New York Yankees in the 2019 ALDS2, but gave up two runs in a third of an inning and was charged with his team's 10-4 loss in Game 1 on October 4th. Before the 2021 season, he signed as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants, in time to be a big bullpen contributor in a record-setting season in which the Giants won 107 regular season games. He went 4-0 2.92 with 2 saves in 63 games, with 63 strikeouts in 61 2/3 innings that year. However, he was hit hard once again in the postseason, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits in 2 2/3 innings as the Giants lost a tight Division Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He failed to repeat his numbers in 2022, going 3-3, 5.08 in 39 games as the Giants fell back to earth.

In 2023, he went to spring training with the Texas Rangers but failed to stick with the team and was sold to the Boston Red Sox on May 5th. He pitched twice for them, giving up 3 runs in as many innings, then was claimed off waivers by the Tampa Bay Rays. That turned out to be a good fit for him as he pitched 26 times for them, including 14 as a starter after moving to the rotation at the end of July, and went 3-6 3.93. He had an excellent K/W ratio of 72/9 for the Rays. He returned to the postseason for the third time in five years, pitching two scoreless and hitless innings during which he struck out four batters in a 7-1 loss to the Rangers in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on October 4th. He was back with Tampa in 2024 and spent the entire season as a starter, going 8-10, 3.63 in 29 games. His 156 innings that season were easily a career high - he had never had more than 90 in any season before that - and he continued to display excellent control with 141 strikeouts and just 31 walks. He was again a full-time starter for Tampa in the first four months of the 2025 season, going 8-8, 3.58 in 22 starts, totaling 133 1/3 innings. He continued to display great control, with a K/W ratio of 89/21, but he was leading the American League in home runs allowed with 26 at the end of July, although this was mainly a function of pitching in a bandbox of a home ballpark - George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Rays' temporary home that year. On July 30th, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in a complex three-team trade that also involved the Los Angeles Dodgers. In all, six players changed teams in the deal, but Zack was by far the biggest name, with P Paul Gervase and Cs Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt other involved with major league experience.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Mark Sheldon: "Reds acquire RHP Littell from Rays to bolster rotation", mlb.com, July 31, 2025. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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