12:20pm: Kelley is drawing interest from roughly 10 teams, including the Reds, per Jon Heyman of Fancred.
11:32am: The Red Sox and free-agent reliever Shawn Kelley “have been in contact,” Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. Meanwhile, Boston is unlikely to sign either Sergio Romo or Adam Warren in free agency, Cotillo hears.
With Joe Kelly having signed with the Dodgers and Craig Kimbrel currently a free agent, acquiring bullpen help is likely the Red Sox’s top priority at the moment. But president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has suggested the reigning world champions aren’t going to splurge on a reliever, which means their union with Kimbrel could be over. Kelley would represent both a far more affordable but less exciting option, on the other hand, and could give the club a solid late-game arm for a low cost.
While Kelley has experienced some down seasons during his career, the journeyman has typically performed well in recent years. In 2018, which he split between the Nationals and Athletics, Kelley overcame tumbling velocity to post a 2.94 ERA/3.71 FIP and register 9.18 K/9 against 2.02 BB/9 across 49 innings. He did log an unappealing groundball rate (30.2 percent), however, which has been the case throughout his career. Kelley also saw his Nats tenure end unceremoniously when the team designated him for assignment Aug. 1, a day after he allowed a home run and slammed his glove to the ground during a 25-4 loss to the Mets. Upon designating Kelley, general manager Mike Rizzo noted, “If you’re not in, you’re in the way.”
Even though his Washington stint concluded in embarrassing fashion, Kelley was unfazed in Oakland, where he put up tremendous results in a 16 2/3-inning span. The Red Sox will hope for more of that from Kelley if they sign him, though they’re no doubt mindful it would be risky to count on the right-hander. After all, Kelley’s a soon-to-be 35-year-old with a pair of Tommy John surgeries under his belt, and he’s only two seasons removed from recording a hideous 7.27 ERA in 26 frames.
Who cares?
Let us know when someone signs.
Rumors is part of website title. Seriously, go away
You care enough to comment
Lol
I know, it’s so annoying that mlb trade rumors presents us with rumors regarding trades and FA signings. Almost as annoying as news channels presenting us with news.
you, sir, get loser comment of the day. this and any future comments shall be downvoted.
everyone, pile on.
Downvoted
look at him and laugh, everyone look at him and laugh!! X^D
Haha…somebody with Chisox in their name….and saying who cares…classic.
Honestly, they should be able to get someone cheap with the pitch that ‘you will be our closer for the year’ and return to the market next year with boosted stock. If they really aren’t willing to pass that maximum threshold again, which makes no sense to me
I thought he’s make sense here. Fly balls have a better shot of turning into outs in the ballparks in the West.
Adam Warren would be a solid get. Not sure why they won’t go there…
Don’t have the funds.
How much is he expected to get?
The fear is the BoSox payroll going over $240mm, then it’s a 50% tax and moving their draft slot down 10 positions. Boston is around $225mm right now and haven’t signed contracts for their whole 40 man roster yet. It’s gonna be close….
JBJ to the Braves for Winkler & Sam Freeman ??
Frees up cash & gives them a cost controlled bullpen arms
Just an idea
i think this is a good idea for botg sides
trading both swihart and devers should land top-end pen help, at the very least create cap space to re-sign kimbrel.
swihardt has very little value
Swihart doesn’t have that much value and would only bring down the value of Devers.
How does anyone on a cheap deal bring down the value of another player? Swihart’s appeal is as a 25th man who can catch. Bat will also improve with consistent at bats. Most on this site laughed at him last year when he stayed on the roster and earned his WS ring.
He’s not a catcher, even the Sox don’t trust him to catch
He’s roster depth with the ability to catch. The main reasons why he didn’t catch more were named Vazquez and Leon. It’s a catch 22 on a team playing for a championship. If he consistently hit, he would have caught more but he needed at bats to settle in. I’m not saying he’ll turn into a HOF catcher but certain teams last year would have given him a shot if he had been released.
Devers is terrible and may bring down the value on Swihart lol
throwinched10, that makes zero sense.
Swihart and Devers don’t make enough to help sign a good bullpen piece. It would have to be a guy like Bradley to go for a reliever or two.
One of the stupidest comments I’ve seen…
They will not trade a 21 year old 3rd baseman with 2 years of league minimums and 3 arbitration seasons left for bullpen arms.. try and think things through..then type
Both those guys make nothing. They would need to move some payroll(I.e. Porcello, JBJ) to make your scenario work…
Most of the so called experts are predicting Kelley to get a 1 year deal for $5MM+/-.
At that price, pass.
At this point, Meghan Kelly would improve the Red Sox bullpen……
Machine gun Kelly would help the most.
They are stocking up on beards. First Hembree, now Kelley. Clearly trying to entice Kimbrel.
more like Kimbrel is finding out he will not get the contract that he wants. best he could hope for is a 3/50. His price and years are dropping faster each day it gets closer to spring training.
So if the choice is in Shawn Kelley’s hands…Reds or Red Sox…is there really a decision to be made if the money is reasonably close? I mean, have you ever been to Cincinnati?
Yes, have you?
“you never anyone say: I’ve going to Cleveland” draymond green
Boston will miss Kimbrel and he will miss them as he and/or agent did not learn anything from last years or see that Manny and Harper are not signed on Jan 20. Is Kimbrel worth much more then Brittons deal? $13 mil AAV? He is not worth Chapman’s deal because it’s Already too much $ but, signed b4 owners colluded, oh I mean decided to not offer long deals anymore. Did Kimbrel turn down the $17.9 or so QO? Wonder if draft pick issue as 1 reason he’s still unemployed.
Not looking great during last games of WS did not help him. No chatter about him makes me wonder if he will sign b4 pitchers and catchers report very soon. Screws up part is if he does get s big deal in feb once ST starts will be be prepared and effective enough for his new team? Late signed players last year did not have great seasons. -A 3/$45 mil must have been offere by Someone. Take it or sign with Boston for 1 year. That’s if they can afford him after spending like crazy since 2014 to win in 2018. It caught up to Yankees, Detroit an will probably do same for Nats at some point.
Red Sox did make a QO to Kimbrel, but he had dreams of a $100 million deal. Yes, RS could use a lot of BP help, but are not in any mood to spend that big for a closer. He’d better be ready to take much less if he wants to go back to Boston. BTW, It’s nice to see that some NYY fans are concerned about Boston’s bullpen.
It was his behavior in a 25-4 Nats WIN that got him DFA’d. Pure solo frustration on a day the team was doing fine.
Kelley really screw up the second half last year. Who would want him now? Will he ever be good again?
Yes, he did well for a while. Then he was unwatchable. Messed up one game after the other. The glove throwing was the last straw.
So he went over to the AL where the hitters didn’t know him, “where he put up tremendous results in a 16 2/3-inning span”.
lol
And now he worth $5m?
MLB is nuts.
Yikes. Wouldn’t want to see a guy with that fly ball rate on the mound against the Yankees. His home run rate might go up from 1/9 innings to 1/batter.
I wish if Cincinnati were going to sign a 35 year old reliever it would be Tony Sipp not Shawn Kelly. They need a lefty to go with Amir Garrett.
I see the pirates signing him to a 1 year 5 million dollar deal
He threw his glove during a 25-4 victory over the Meta.
Obviously I mean Mets.
Back to the A’s where Kelley was a hit, glove frustrating thing or not…
If their current bullpen guys don’t get the job done the Sox could move Eovaldi into the closer role. If Wright is healthy he could be the number 5 man in the rotation.
Kelley is so up and down. The team that signs him in 2020 as a bounce back candidate will be very happy.
The Sox should sign ANYONE other than Kimbrel. Kimbrel was a heart attack waiting to happen in the playoffs and will probably continue that trend for the rest of his career. And he wants over 15 million per year for multiple years??? LOL, good luck with that Craig.