The Reds have signed right-hander Casey Kelly to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Louisville, per an announcement from Louisville. Kelly, the son of Bats supervisor Pat Kelly, was launched by the Korea Baseball Group’s LG Twins final month.
Kelly, 34, was as soon as a first-round choose by the Purple Sox again in 2008. Included alongside Anthony Rizzo within the commerce that introduced Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, the righty was a consensus top-30 prospect within the sport previous to his large league debut with the Padres in 2012. Sadly, Kelly’s profession in stateside ball didn’t take off the best way his prospect standing may need recommended. He struggled badly in his rookie season with a 6.21 ERA and 4.78 FIP in six begins for the Padres, and wouldn’t resurface within the large leagues till 2015. He struggled in short cups of espresso for the Padres and Braves earlier than finally discovering some small-sample dimension success with the Giants in 2018. In San Francisco, the righty pitched to a strong 3.04 ERA with a 4.22 FIP in seven appearances (three begins) that totaled 23 2/3 innings of labor.
That efficiency wasn’t sufficient to earn him extra enjoying time within the majors, however it did seize consideration abroad, and Kelly signed his first contract with the KBO’s LG Twins previous to the 2019 season. Kelly turned in a superb season in his first yr abroad as he posted a sterling 2.55 ERA in 180 1/3 frames throughout 29 begins regardless of a strikeout fee of simply 16.9%. Kelly remained with the membership for greater than half a decade and posted wonderful numbers as a stalwart of the Twins’ rotation, with a 3.08 ERA in 875 2/3 innings of labor coming into the 2024 season.
Whereas some reporting indicated that there was stateside curiosity in Kelly’s providers this yr, the right-hander remained with the Twins on a one yr deal in the course of the offseason. His outcomes took a flip for the more serious this yr, nevertheless, and he surrendered a lackluster 4.51 ERA whereas hanging out simply 13.9% of opponents in 19 begins earlier than he was finally reduce unfastened to make room on the membership’s roster for newly-signed righty Elieser Hernandez. That’s opened the door for Kelly to return to stateside ball for the primary time since 2018, although he’ll accomplish that with a Reds group the place he faces some stiff competitors to make it to the most important league stage.
Cincinnati is at the moment deploying a rotation of Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Nick Martinez, and Carson Spiers with Jakob Junis in a multi-inning reduction function. Of that group, Junis’s 108 ERA+ is the weakest, leaving no apparent weak hyperlink to get replaced. An damage or two might open up spots with the massive league membership, in fact, however even then Kelly must put himself forward of not solely fellow non-roster veterans like Justus Sheffield but in addition items already on the membership’s 40-man roster like Lyon Richardson with a purpose to crack the massive league roster. Nonetheless, it’s definitely attainable to think about a robust displaying from Kelly within the minors down the stretch resulting in additional curiosity in his providers in affiliated ball headed into the 2025 marketing campaign, even when he doesn’t obtain a possibility within the majors this yr.