Kevin Kelly is proving to be one more diamond within the tough for the Tampa Bay Rays. Acquired from the Cleveland Guardians through the Colorado Rockies within the December 2022 Rule 5 draft, the 26-year-old right-hander has since logged a 3.14 ERA and a 3.24 FIP in 73 appearances out of the Rays bullpen. Attacking the strike zone from a low arm slot, Kelly has fanned 74 batters whereas permitting 70 hits and simply 16 walks over 86 innings.
His prospect profile was modest at greatest. A Nineteenth-round choose within the 2019 draft out of James Madison College, Kelly was unranked previous to altering organizations, and going into final yr he was conservatively assigned a 40 FV and a no. 27 rating on our Rays listing. Which isn’t to say that Eric Longenhagen didn’t acknowledge Kelly’s potential. Pointing to the side-slinger’s east-west arsenal and skill to maintain the ball out of the air, Longenhagen wrote that Kelly had an opportunity to stay on Tampa Bay’s roster and be “an incredible choice out of the bullpen while you want a floor ball to get out of a jam.”
Inducing worm-killers is certainly one in every of Kelly’s biggest strengths. Per Statcast, his 48.2% floor ball fee ranked within the 78th percentile final season, and this yr he’s at present within the 91st percentile at 55.6%. And it’s not as if he doesn’t miss an inexpensive quantity of bats. His strikeout fee won’t be something to write down residence about, however at 23.0% it dwells in center of the pack of main league hurlers.
In keeping with Tampa Bay pitching coach Kyle Snyder, the righty reliever’s success relies on a number of components.
“There’s positively a deception part to the distinctive arm motion, to the acceleration sample,” Snyder mentioned. “His sinker, particularly proper now, is producing in all probability an additional inch and a half of [inverted vertical break] in comparison with final yr, so there may be further depth. It’s a reasonably steep cliff. He’s been in a position to seam shift a little bit bit higher this season. His sweeper additionally generates quite a lot of vertical IVB, so together with the [sinker to the] arm aspect, he’s received vertical carry on the glove aspect.”
Kelly cited two key modifications to his arsenal that helped him flip the proverbial nook and turn into a viable huge league candidate. In 2022, Cleveland’s then Double-A pitching coach Owen Dew taught Kelly how one can throw his sweeper. The earlier season, he began throwing his fastball a bit more durable, although its velocity remains to be quite pedestrian, rating among the many slowest heaters within the league at 90.7 mph. That further oomph, he mentioned, was the results of higher conditioning.
“In school, I used to be 84 to 88 as a starter,” Kelly advised me. “I used to be 88 within the first inning and normally 84-86 within the sixth. Then, as soon as I received to professional ball, I misplaced 30 kilos, which helped me transfer sooner. The much less fats you’ve received on you, the faster you’re going to maneuver. I additionally shortened up a little bit bit — I’d been very lengthy with my arm motion — and that helped as effectively.”
Kelly now carries 200 kilos — “proper on the dot” — on his 6-foot-2 body, and he propels that weight down the slope with excessive extension. At 7.4 toes, it ranks within the 98th percentile amongst his contemporaries.
“I type of soar off the mound,” defined Kelly, who described his supply as whippy. “I assume I get some true extension as effectively, however in the event you watch my video you’ll be able to see from the aspect that I’m positively not your conventional ‘hold the correct foot down the entire time and simply slowly go down.’ So, I type of soar a little bit bit. I’ve all the time type of had that, even after I was larger.”
The arm angle with which he delivers his three pitches — Kelly additionally throws an occasional cutter, which he discovered in 2022 — has modified considerably through the years. He used to throw from each a better and decrease slot, then after switching solely to a decrease slot, he noticed his arm “slowly drift down a little bit, accidentally.” He feels that this even decrease arm angle has solely helped him to get extra depth on his sinker, which he considers to be his greatest pitch.
The extent to which his sinker grip is exclusive, versus uncommon and even normal, is subjective.
“It’s nothing loopy,” Kelly mentioned. “I’m excellent on… I assume it is perhaps a little bit bizarre. Some individuals are proper on the railroad tracks, so to talk, and I grip it the place it crosses; the horseshoe is on these fingertips. I don’t know if that’s completely different, or even when provides to the motion, however it’s what comfy for me.”
That Kelly has comfortably settled into a task in an enormous league bullpen is one factor that isn’t in query. Following up properly on final yr’s profitable rookie marketing campaign, he not solely has a 3.32 ERA and a 3.77 FIP over 16 appearances comprising 19 innings, he’s punched out 18 batters and issued only one free cross. As Snyder put it, “He assaults the strike zone. He’s a quiet competitor, and we’ve seen how far he’s come from being a Rule 5. And once more, he creates a really distinctive look.”
