The Rangers’ surprise demotion of hard-throwing 23-year-old righty Keone Kela on Friday was due to the team’s unhappiness with how Kela behaved during a “B” game, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. The Rangers have evidently received trade calls about Kela, but they plan to keep him and are not planning to trade him at a discount.
A “B” game is a side Spring Training game in which statistics don’t count toward Cactus (or Grapefruit) League totals. Rosenthal doesn’t report the exact nature of Kela’s behavior, but notes that it upset many veteran Rangers players. He describes the demotion as “a trip to the penalty box,” so although it’s unclear when Kela will return to the Rangers, it seems reasonable to guess he’ll be back at some point.
Kela had a terrific rookie season in the Rangers’ bullpen in 2015, posting a 2.39 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 over 60 1/3 innings while throwing his fastball in the mid- to high 90s. He struggled despite an 11.9 K/9 in 34 innings in 2016, however, posting a 6.09 ERA and 4.5 BB/9 and missing a large chunk of the season after having surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow.
He probably made some political/inappropriate comment. It’s nice to see the rangers do something about it though. I’m sure Harper could say something racist and wouldn’t be overly punished by the team.
Yeah in the middle of a game. You’re an idiot.
Without knowing the details, I can almost guarantee you that if it were hamels or odor or someone like that, the Rangers wouldn’t have disciplined them. When you pitch to an ERA over 6 the year before, you gotta watch yourself
Idk, the rangers are a team that thrives on chemistry and a connected locker room. I could see them punishing one of their stars if they did something to upset the order of things
If it happened during a B game, more likely it was some kind of financial crime. In the dugout.
Why should a guy get suspended for making a political comment? I don’t see what that has to do with the game. When the M’s got rid of Clevenger it made sense because he was absolute horrible and wasn’t going to be back on the major league roster once his hand was better. But this kid looks like he has promise. I typed all of that just to say that there’s no way he got suspended for a political or racist joke as I’m pretty sure that already happens all over pro sports.
Your literally talking out your ass you have no clue and are making assumptions of teams you have no connection with. No need for it
Don’t say “ass.”
Literally talking out of his what?!? You need to look up “literally”.
Oh, and look up “your” too.
Lmao this is because I said Trump has nothing to do with baseball. If you can tell me how he does I’ll understand your point. I guess maybe your mad because he’s too busy to throw out the first pitch for the Nat’s.
One of the dumber comments I’ve seen on here, and that’s really saying something.
Thanks!
Rangers will accept if a player commits assault and battery against an opponent, but an internal issue causes a disciplinary issue. SMH.
I’m a Jay’s fan and this is a bad take
Jerry?
Bautista slid at him illegally and then got ready to swing, we all know this. It was hit or be hit for Odor and chose to knock the crap out of him
It was hypocritical by odor though cause he has a history of dirty slides.
When they were legal and expected
When was it ever legal to spike people?
Really Jerry a history?
If they are saying that the veteran players were upset with his actions and him being a young pitcher I would guess he went headhunting in someone who took him deep on the guy after. That is entirely a guess but you heard last year that “veteran players” were the one who took issue with Ventura doing that last year too. Like I said just a guess but that tends to be a common code word for headhunting.