Pirates reliever Keone Kela is drawing trade interest, including from the division-rival Brewers, according to Robert Murray of The Athletic. No deal appears “imminent,” Murray adds.
The Pirates and Brewers already swung a deal Monday, when Pittsburgh sent starter Jordan Lyles to Milwaukee. The rotation and bullpen still look like concerns for the Brewers, whose less-than-stellar pitching has left the reigning NL Central champions in danger of missing the playoffs. However, with a 56-51 record, the Brewers are very much in the thick of the postseason race. They’re a game back of the division-leading Cubs and Cardinals, facing the same deficit in the wild-card hunt and could make further upgrades by Wednesday’s trade deadline.
To this point, acquiring Kela at last year’s deadline hasn’t paid off as planned for the Pirates (nor has their 2018 deadline pickup of starter Chris Archer). The Pirates sent two pitching prospects to the Rangers for Kela, but the trade didn’t help lead to a playoff berth then and it won’t this season.
Kela has missed most of 2019 with right shoulder problems, and just as he returned from the injured list last week, the Pirates issued the 26-year-old a two-game suspension for an altercation with one of their coaches. The Pirates are now reportedly open to trading Kela, who has tossed three scoreless innings with four strikeouts, a walk and two hits allowed since returning from his short ban. Overall, Kela has logged a 3.68 ERA (and a much less encouraging 5.07 FIP) with 9.2 K/9, 3.07 BB/9, 1.84 HR/9 and a 31.0 percent groundball rate in 14 2/3 innings this season.
While 2019 has been a campaign to forget for Kela, he has mostly been an effective late-game option since debuting with the Rangers in 2015. Dating back to then, the hard-throwing Kela owns a 3.43 ERA/3.35 FIP with 11.04 K/9, 3.43 BB/9, 0.99 HR/9 and a GB percentage of 41.0 across 199 2/3 frames. He’s also affordable ($3.175MM salary) and set to go through arbitration one more time.
They should hold onto him until the season is over. With a good August and September his value would rise. But bad deal Neil will trade him for a low prospect that will never pan out.
Bad deal Neil is perfect. He’s the worst.
Go get him Crew. The Pirates will sell cheap. A level prospect
This might be the one time that I’d rather trade a player within the division than trade him out of it.
If only it was the Cubs…
God they are going to sell low on a guy with high ceiling trade Felipe and let Keone close and build his value!
^listen to this
I would listen to that…if I hadn’t listened to Kela’s interview the other day. Yeah…
Also, teams already know Kela can pitch and already know he can close, so he probably can’t raise his value much higher. Another incident and he could destroy it entirely, though.
Really? People knew that about Ken Giles but Houston demoted him to AAA then bundled him up in a package for a closer w a domestic abuse issue circling him. I’m willing to bet Giles will now return a couple nice prospects.
Kela, too can rebuild much more value than he has today. You’re obviously gambling on his attitude but if you’re looking at a C level prospect in return is that risk/reward worth it? I’d say yes unless he’s a complete clubhouse cancer.
Kela is a good pitcher and should not be traded,especially when there are questions about him that minimize the return.
C level prospects work out maybe 5% of the time.
NH would be stupid to even consider such a trade.
As someone who has met the guy. I don’t understand why both of his employers have had so much trouble with him. He’s just your typical high testosterone athlete that is probably banging your girlfriend.
Thx. Got a chuckle out of that one.
Brewers trade Diplan (who was DFA’d yesterday) and Shaw (who doesn’t really have a spot on this team) for Kela and Cervelli (who is kinda taking up space). Maybe throw in god-awful Neverauskas?
Diplan for Kela is more than it should take. Never mind swapping Shaw for Cervelli.
Kela with 2 Ks and Dickerson with 2 HR put their best out to be seen
What’s up with Dickerson leaving the game early?
It’s like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry teaches George to always leave on a high note.
Nice.
Maybe a trade brewing for Dickerson or they were protecting him for a trade.
I was thinking the same thing. Hate to aggregate a groin via home run trot!
i think i could like kela, but as good as it coild be with him, it seems like a fair chance it could become toxic. his ability is not in question. given the right situation a top level guy he just needs to find that. a couple b types that are a couple years away could get a deal done for me… if not keep him and try to work it out. if burdi makes it back with kela and vazquez the shark tank would be deadly.
Don’t ask me to explain why rationally, but….
I kinda liked Kela in the brawl tonight and I’d be far more open to keeping him than hours earlier. If he’s going to be a good teammate to the 24 other guys in the room, him giving the organization headaches becomes a bit more tolerable.
I was surprised that Cervelli is on the bench.He has always been a hothead.
I am not surprised at Crick and Archer.They need to concentrate on pitching more than fighting.
I do not think that David Bell is a ML manager.
I loved that about Kela when he was with Texas. He’ll drill a guy if needed, and definitely will look for a scrap. Teams need some of those guys.
I would keep Kela.His injury really hurt the Pirates this year.The failure of the bullpen,and the injuries with no replacements,killed the Pirates’ season.The recent hitting swoon and the lack of good starters would have doomed them out of the playoffs,but they could have had a decent season.This is the worst one since 2011.
“I just wanted to show them that we didn’t agree with the way things went down, and you have to pitch in,” Kela said. “I was just going my part.”
Changed my mind. Keep him. They need more guys with fire in them.