4:52pm: The Athletics announced that they’ve acquired Kelley for international slot money. To clear room for him, they placed outfielder Jake Smolinski on the 60-day disabled list with a blood clot in his left calf.
4:46pm: The Athletics have acquired reliever Shawn Kelley from the Nationals, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reports. There’s no word yet on what the Nationals received in exchange, but given that they designated Kelley for assignment earlier this week, it’s likely to be an insubstantial return.
Even though it’s competing for a playoff spot in the National League, Washington elected to move on from Kelley after he admitted he “acted like a baby” in a 25-4 rout over the Mets on Tuesday. Kelley slammed his glove after allowing a home run in that game, which offended general manager Mike Rizzo and others in the Nationals organization.
“If you’re not in, you’re in the way,” Rizzo said (via Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post).
It’s clear Kelley’s actions didn’t turn off Oakland, which is pushing for a playoff berth in the AL. If his results to this point of the campaign are any indication, the 34-year-old Kelley should help the Athletics break their three-year playoff drought. Kelley logged a 3.34 ERA with 8.91 K/9 and 1.39 BB/9 in 32 1/3 innings with the Nats this year, though that came with a 27 percent groundball rate and a 4.56 FIP. He’s in the final season of a three-year, $15MM contract and is making $5.5MM.
Oakland is doing everything right
Not a bad pick up. Even after his 3 ER in 1.0IP in 25-4 nightmare DFA game, He still has 3.34 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 32/5 K/BB ratio over 32 1/3 innings on the season.
Slick move IMO. Can’t faul anyone trading for him. Because of his “down” past years, actually feel quite underrated. Great job, Oakland!
Just hang on to your glove dude and all will be forgiven
“insubstantial return” – Bucket of used balls?
2 tubs of sunflower seeds too. Washington so wrong on this. Sure remember seeing fights in dugout before.
“Sure remember seeing fights in dugouts before.”
This would have been a fight between Kelley and his manager, who probably didn’t appreciate the gesture. Doesn’t happen often and usually doesn’t end well for either party.
The only actual physical confrontation between player and manager during a game I can recall was Billy Martin vs. Reginald Martinez Jackson. If we include off-field incidents Billy registers once again for his final, brutally ineffective set of bouts vs. Ed Whitson.
Not sure why this is something you are encouraging.
wasn’t there a incident a week or so ago featuring Overrated Harper & any number of ppl in dugout. I’m sure it was featured on BB tonight
“Overrated Harper” Do you think capitalizing the word makes your point that much more legitimate.
Lou Pinella and Carlos Zambrano had a scuffle once. Derek Lee had to get between them.
Must be, because it is legitimate. Good player, not nearly as good as his reputation. He’s had at most two MVP type seasons, but too many people act like he’s Trout 2.0
“ . . . but too many people act like he’s Trout 2.0”
1) Bryce Harper is berry good at baseball.
2) Mike Trout is even better at baseball.
More than one thing can be true at the same time. Gotta assume that much of the Harper hatred is due to his former 1-1 status. Trout didn’t come with the same pedigree so his accomplishments, and he has been historically great, are seen as overachieving while Harper is seen as underachieving.
D Bag day say W???!
Big O or small O, Harper has lost ved up to the hype in one season, perhaps 1 1/2. There is no mlb’er as overhyped.
Man my phone blows. “Harper had lived…”
To simplify, compare him to others that debuted in 2012. If you go to this BBR link, you can sort the 2nd table by WAR to bring all similar players together. baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2012-debuts.sht… Notable career WARs from the list: Dozier (24.4), Cespedes (21.6), Harper (27), Machado. FWIW Donaldson had a 14 game cup of coffee in 2010, 0 games in 2011 (37.8), Trout 2011 debut (62). He’s closer to the likes of Dozier & Cespedes than Donaldson & Trout
Ted Lilly/John Gibbons in ’06
Fantastic pickup by Beane & co. They are doing a lot of the right things this year.
eh maybe, he stunk last year and stunk up until about a month ago. maybe he can turn it around
He’s a very inconsistent guy, but he does seem to have his location this year, and with that excellent defense behind him, surely will outperform any negative peripheral. He will most likely get a lot of innings this month, to give Petit and Pagan breathers.
fwiw the oakland defense is 24th in mlb in errors and 18th in fielding percentage., the nats are 2nd in mlb in errors and 2nd in fielding percentage so the argument of a better defense doesnt really work
The only “excellent” defender on that team is Chapman. I’m not sure I’d qualify anyone else as excellent.
errors and fielding percentage? haven’t we moved past using those stats for defense?
Fangraphs has the A’s 8th in defense and the Nationals 18th.
Why do you think errors and fielding percentage matter when talking about defense? They really don’t. You can get errors by being better at defense and getting a ball no one else can get to, but if the 1B bobbles it, the error can get given to you. Meanwhile, letting a ball go right by you for a single is not an error. What a worthless stat.
Matt Olson is the best 1B in MLB by a long, long way.
also, errors are just arbitrary decisions that have no standard basis. what one score keeper calls an error, another would not.
Yes, Kelley is very effective when he’s “on” and not injured. Remember that he spent his share of time on the WAS DL in 2016 and 2017.
If you look at the A’s defsne the corners are way above average. The OF is very solid and even better with the new rookie out there. Semien and Lowrie is the only blemish on defense. Lowrie makes all the plays. Semien is consistent but is a below average SS.
I agree Olson and lowrie are solid defenders, semien has never been a great defender but passable because of his bat
Laureano?
Doesn’t take a genius to realize Semien is an awful SS
Olson is pretty good.
Him and Blake Treinen are gonna be dominant. Calling it.
Just international slot money that the A’s probably can’t use anyway. Awesome.
How were the Rockies not in on this guy? Does Bridich actually think his bullpen is doing a good job and can’t be improved upon? It’s not like the Rox are using their international slot money much either.
You want the guy with 1.9 HR/9 and a ground ball percentage of 27% to pitch in Coors Field?
Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
How many relievers do the A’s need? Wow. Trienen, Trivino, Buchter, Kelley, Familia, Pagan, Dull, Hatcher. Crazy. I do request they stop winning for obvious reasons, but that pen is insane.
Only person here who is insane is you, for referring to Dull and Hatcher as “insane”. lol jk but cmon man, those two are total trash.
Hatcher is hot and cold
Just naming relievers, in general pen is insane, not saying those two are.
Having “mop up” relievers as good as Dull and Hatcher is still pretty good. They are not outstanding by any means, but in most bullpens they would be higher than #7 or #8 on the depth chart..
One or both of Dull and Hatcher need to be gone now please
But dull was the lone all star last season! Kidding
Nats fans all disagreed that they were trying to trade him, but here we are.
They are also disagreeing today that Kelley’s replacement will likely be Greg Holland and his 8 ERA. Give that one another week to simmer.
I wouldn’t necessarily say they are tanking, but they ARE actively worsening their team. It seems like a surprise approach given that they still have a chance of making the playoffs, and also that their window is closing, but perhaps this is an early sign of a high-turnover offseason and a mini-rebuild.
OVER…RATED
OVER…RATED
OVER…RATED
are the Nats, they awarded the rings every year in pre-season….Just because they have some of the best players in MLB doesn’t mean they’ll win. Harper drags the whole team down
I still feel that the Nats’ best chance to turn it around this year would have been to trade Harper by 7/31. I think there was significant pressure from ownership and MLB to keep him. You can’t exactly trade the guy featured on the Topps packs can you, Rizz? Too big to trade, and I think that is total BS.
Not sure they would’ve gotten a ton of 2018 help for him, but the best course of action was to they get a top 50 for him and give Robles a MLB job
Slamming a glove gets you dfa’d but fighting your star outfield was acceptable.
Great call. What a stupid franchise. Just give all your good players to Beane and let him win one already.
ok nats fans, is slamming a glove the real reason this guy was sent across the country? or is there more to it?
Kind of more to it, but also he had every right to be mad at pitching in a blowout like that, it’s disrespectful to your most-used guys. No manager does that unless he’s trying to show the player “who’s boss”. Nats are in a bad way right now, internally. I don’t even blame Kelley at all. This is just 100% Nats front office/on field management ineptitude.
Maybe the fans will lose interest.
Then the Nats can do like the last two DC franchises did.
Ouch… you really went for the jugular with that one, MetsYankeesRedSox
He has a 90% strand rate and a 4.56 FIP. They haven’t trusted him in high leverage situations anymore so he was down on the depth chart. Slammed his glove in a 20 run rout and got canned. I think they think they didn’t lose much. They might be right.
I’m confused. So he was DFA two days after the trade deadline. Did he have to go through the same process as a post trade deadline waiver claim?
A’s Billy Beane & co definitely know how to get the talent they need to stay competitive without overpaying! Blake Treinen, Lou Trivino, Familia, the Butcher and now Kelley boom Yankees be ready…
funny how they let him go but when Harper destroyed the cooler or guys were fighting in the dugout they kept them. lol Rizzo is such a crap gm. smart move as always by bean.
Not often a pitcher slams his glove on the ground.. Pretty amusing.
I’ve been compiling a list of the season’s top 100 highlights. Shawn Kelley is #11 on my list so far.
Be interesting to see your top ten list
Feel like it’s the Nationals over reacting, now. I’ve seen this crew act pretty crazy in the dug out. The guy apologized so I don’t know why that isn’t good enough for them. Whatever. Wish the guy well with the A’s.
You know, I read so often from commenters on mlbtr that Bryce Harper is overrated that I find it hard to believe he is ACTUALLY overrated.
“If you ain’t in you’re in the way” is that a Ricky Bobbie quote?
Him slamming a glove down is childish, but…
Oakland will win an AL Wild Card spot now and Washington won’t.
Look, yeah, they’re grown men. They should act better. But you’re allowed to feel frustration. Being a machine on the mound and acting like nothing bothers you? That doesn’t work. Passion can be a good thing. Get passionate, get pissed off. Votto is a great example of letting his feelings out. And he’s one of the best hitters of our generation.
As much as I want Seattle to break their streak of not making the postseason, as someone mentioned above – Oakland IS doing everything right. Good ol’ Moneyball. Pick up the spoils from others and cultivate them into your own.
Will Oakland win the Wild Card spot? No. But they’ll make it. And it’s because of moves like this. Get the man who gets angry. Get the man who throws his gloves. Why? Because those guys want to WIN.
Isn’t the team trading a talented reliever because he threw a temper tantrum on the field an even bigger (and more consequential) temper tantrum?
You guys are acting like it’s a lockdown reliever here. The man had an ERA over 8 last year. His FIP is a very unspectacular 4.56 and he’s averaging almost 2 hrs per 9 innings. This isn’t a stud reliever.
Which (after perusing their BBRef page) is still one of the better FIP’s on that team. It’s also skewed by a nearly 2 per 9 HR rate. He’s averaging 8.9 K/9 and only 1..9 BB/9. That’s not a pitcher I’m freely giving away when the rest of the bullpen is packed with stalwarts like Matt Grace, Justin Miller, and Sammy Solis. He may not be an elite reliever but in that bullpen, he doesn’t have to be.
I agree thats an uninspiring group but they all have lower FIP’s than Kelley so that would not be an accurate statement. I’d say they’re all Pretty similar in terms of talent but they didn’t show their manager up. It’s skewed by the HR rate because he gives up bombs. That’s a legitimate issue that cant be tossed away.
The amazing part is the A’s have used 12 starting pitchers this year and are still competing. And with their bullpen, they only need to get 5 innings from a starter in the playoffs. In fact, if they make the wildcard, you can get 6 innings from Treinen, Trivino and Familia in the game if you needed to. Go A’s.
Great message to the fans. When he gets ousted for embarrassing himself and his old team, another validates his behavior by picking him up. There is no class in this league.
lol he slammed his glove down on a team in turmoil with a manager who’s losing the clubhouse. Meanwhile, a guy who beat a woman was traded for actual assets. Were you looking for the Osuna thread, or are you just making an awfully-timed point?