For Rangers reliever Shawn Kelley, it’s Texas or bust in 2020. He tells MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan that he’ll retire if the organization decides against exercising a $2.5MM club option for his services.
Kelley says he’s comfortable with the Rangers and would “love to come back and do another year.” Otherwise, he’s happy to hang ’em up and “drift off to the sunset.” (He’d do so with a $250K buyout as a parting gift.)
The 35-year-old was dinged a few times after returning from a biceps injury, but has otherwise generally been effective this year. All told, he carries a 4.07 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9.
Kelley has actually rebounded a bit in average fastball velocity (92.3 mph) and swinging-strike rate (11.2%) as compared with his 2018 showing, though he’s clearly not in prime form. As with many other hurlers around the game, Kelley has run into particular trouble this season with the long ball (1.93 HR/9, 16.4% HR/FB rate).
It’s possible to imagine this situation resulting either in a return or a retirement. The Rangers have little in the way of bullpen certainty and may like the idea of retaining the veteran at a palatable rate of pay. But it’s also possible they’ll decide to spend the money elsewhere.
Heard the same thing with Chavez and the Cubs last year.
A’s fans were confused why we didn’t re-sign Kelley last offseason. He had been solid for us, although in mostly harmless innings. This is why. He had considered retiring last year because he didn’t want to play for a team that was too far away from his home in Texas. We would have had to overpay for a guy that was just okay.
Glad he got to play close to home, though.
Who?