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Casey Kelly

Diamondbacks Sign Casey Kelly To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Casey Kelly to a minor league deal, according to the transactions log on Kelly’s MLB.com profile page.

Kelly, 35, was a first-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2008. He quickly rose to minor league stardom, becoming a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport before he was traded to the Padres alongside future All-Star Anthony Rizzo in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez. Kelly made his big league debut with San Diego just a year later, though he struggled to a 6.21 ERA in 29 innings of work across six starts in that first big league cup of coffee. Tommy John surgery in 2013 forced him to stay away from the big league mound for quite some time after that, however, and upon his return in 2015 he was torched to the tune of a 7.94 ERA in 11 1/3 innings of work that brought the Padres chapter of his career to a disappointing end.

Kelly bounced through the Braves, Cubs, and Giants organizations over the next couple of seasons, even getting a brief look in the majors with Atlanta during the 2016 season, but it wasn’t until the 2018 campaign in San Francisco that the right-hander found success in the majors. That success was fairly limited, as Kelly pitched just 23 2/3 frames at the highest level that year, but his 3.04 ERA was the first above-average showing in the majors of his career. It even earned him some attention on the other side of the world, as Kelly went on to depart the Giants organization in favor of joining the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins.

Kelly’s stint in Korea ultimately lasted six seasons, and saw him put together an impressive overseas career. The right-hander pitched to a 3.25 ERA overall in 989 1/3 innings of work for the LG Twins in parts of six seasons from 2019 to 2024. Those first four seasons were particularly impressive, as Kelly made at least 27 starts in each of them with ERAs ranging from 2.54 to 3.32 and solid peripheral numbers to match. Unfortunately, Kelly started to show signs of decline in 2023 that brought about the end of his KBO career in 2024 after he struggled to a 4.51 ERA in 19 starts for the LG Twins that led the club to cut him from the team in July of last year.

After being cut loose in Korea, Kelly made his way back into stateside ball with the Reds on a minor league deal. He managed to get called up to the majors for a brief stint down the stretch last year, his first stint in the majors in more than half a decade. He pitched just 5 1/3 innings for the Reds last year, surrendering three runs on three hits (one homer) and a walk while striking out four. The right-hander was then outrighted to Triple-A Louisville in August and elected minor league free agency back in October. Now, Kelly appears likely to serve as non-roster depth for the Diamondbacks headed into 2025. He’s got plenty of competition on the club’s pitching depth chart, with Jordan Montgomery, Ryne Nelson, and Tommy Henry among the pitchers just on the 40-man roster who could vie for a long relief role with the club this season.

34 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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Designated Hitter

Pitchers

Reds Select David Buchanan, Designate Evan Kravetz

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The Reds announced a trio of roster moves Saturday, including the news that David Buchanan’s contract has been selected from Triple-A.  Left-hander Evan Kravetz was designated for assignment in the corresponding move to create roster space for Buchanan.  Cincinnati also announced that Casey Kelly (who was designated for assignment earlier this week) cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A.

Buchanan figures to get at least one start for a Reds team that been hit hard by rotation injuries, and it represents a rather remarkable comeback story.  The 35-year-old Buchanan last pitched in the majors way back in 2015 as a member of the Phillies rotation, and he spent the 2016 with Triple-A Lehigh Valley before embarking on a long stint overseas.  Buchanan pitched for Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball in 2017-19, and he then spent the 2020-23 seasons with the KBO League’s Samsung Lions.

The right-hander enjoyed a good deal of success in international baseball, including a pair of All-Star nods with the Lions in 2022 and 2023.  This earned Buchanan another look in North America, as he signed a minor league contract to return to the Phillies organization this past winter.  Buchanan had a 4.82 ERA over 102 2/3 Triple-A innings before he was traded to the Reds earlier this week, in a post-deadline deal made possible since Buchanan hadn’t spent any time on Philadelphia’s 40-man roster this season.

Kravetz hits the DFA wire just three days after making his Major League debut, and throwing two-thirds of scoreless ball in the Reds’ 9-6 loss to the Athletics on August 28.  While it’s safe to say that Cincinnati’s injury crunch helped open the door for Kravetz to get a cup of coffee in the majors, he made a solid case for promotion with a 3.40 ERA and a 25% strikeout rate in 42 1/3 relief innings with Triple-A Louisville this season.

Even this ERA was inflated by an uncharacteristically high 16.3% home run rate, though Kravetz didn’t help himself with an 11.7% walk rate in Louisville.  Free passes have been something of a persistent issue for Kravetz, who has an 11.1% walk rate across his 244 1/3 career innings as a minor leaguer.

As for Kelly, there isn’t yet any word if he’ll accept the outright assignment and remain in the organization.  Because he has been outrighted in the past, the veteran hurler can elect to become a free agent rather than stick with the Reds.

Reds Designate Casey Kelly For Assignment

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Brandon Leibrandt from Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Casey Kelly has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has been quite banged up of late. Coming into August, they already had Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson, Brent Suter, Ian Gibaut and Tejay Antone on the injured list. Since the month has started, Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa have been added to the pile.

The club has already made a few transactions to bolster the pitching staff in recent days, including selecting Kelly. The 34-year-old had been pitching for the LG Twins of the KBO but got released when that club signed Elieser Hernández. That ended an almost six-year relationship, as Kelly had signed with the Twins going into 2019. He had a 3.25 ERA in that time, tossing just under 1,000 innings, but that ERA jumped to 4.51 this year and the Twins let him go.

He landed a minor league deal with the Reds in early August and made two Triple-A starts, allowing four earned runs in eight innings. He got called up to the majors a few days ago and logged 5 1/3 innings over two relief appearances, allowing three earned runs in that time.

The Reds needed six pitchers to get through last night’s game, including Kelly, and have decided to get a fresh arm into the mix. With the trade deadline now passed, Kelly will be placed on waivers in the coming days. He has a previous career outright and would therefore have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Taking his spot is the 31-year-old Leibrandt. He has a small amount of major league experience, having tossed nine innings for the Marlins in the shortened 2020 season. Since then, he has bounced around to various minor league and indy ball clubs.

He started 2024 with the High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League, tossing 19 1/3 innings over four starts with a tiny ERA of 0.93. That got him a minor league deal with the Reds in May and he has been with Louisville since then. He has logged 72 2/3 innings over 15 starts there with a 4.46 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 39% ground ball rate.

Given the club’s aforementioned challenges with the pitching staff, they may call upon Leibrandt to absorb some innings at some point. He still has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, so the club will be able to retain him for a long time. But since they have been rotating guys on and off the roster lately, it’s entirely possible that it will be a short stint for Leibrandt, like it was for Kelly.

Reds Select Casey Kelly

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The Reds have selected the contract of right-hander Casey Kelly, per a club announcement. Right-hander Alan Busenitz was designated for assignment to make room for Kelly on the club’s 40-man and active rosters.

Kelly, 34, was a first-round pick in the 2008 draft and a consensus top-100 prospect early in his pro career with the Red Sox. Kelly was packaged with Anthony Rizzo in the deal that brought Adrian Gonzalez to Boston from San Diego, and Kelly’s pedigree as a top pitching prospect helped him to reach the majors during just his second year in the Padres organization. That big league debut left much to be desired, as Kelly pitched to a lackluster 6.21 ERA in 29 innings of work across six starts with the Padres during the 2012 season. Tommy John surgery wiped out Kelly’s entire 2013 season, and he wouldn’t make it back to the majors until 2015 when he surrendered 13 runs (10 earned) in just 11 1/3 innings of work across three appearances.

That ended Kelly’s Padres tenure, and while he briefly found a role with the Braves as a multi-inning reliever during the 2016 season, he wouldn’t find success in the majors until 2018, six years after his big league debut. In San Francisco, Kelly did quite well while swinging between the rotation and bullpen, but even that success was short-lived as his 3.04 ERA spanned just seven appearances and 23 2/3 innings of work. Kelly’s brief stint with the Giants evidently earned him some attention overseas, however, as after parting ways with the Giants he went on to pitch in parts of six seasons for the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins.

In Korea, Kelly was a rotation stalwart who made between 27 and 30 starts each year from 2019 to 2023 while never posting an ERA higher than 3.83. Kelly reportedly received some stateside interest this past offseason but chose to remain overseas, though his sixth season in the KBO did not go particularly well as he struggled to a 4.51 ERA in 19 starts before being cut loose last month. That led him back to affiliated ball, where he signed a minor league deal with the Reds and was assigned to Triple-A Louisville. Kelly was managed by his father, Pat Kelly, while pitching for Louisville and performed decently in two starts, with a 4.50 ERA despite a strikeout rate of just 5.6%. Recent injuries to Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott have now opened the door for Kelly to make his first big league appearance since 2018, and the journeyman figures to provide Cincinnati with multi-inning relief depth out of the bullpen while the club utilizes a patchwork rotation featuring Julian Aguilar and Carson Spiers alongside Nick Lodolo and Nick Martinez.

Making way for Kelly on the 40-man and active rosters is Busenitz, who departs the club after making just one appearance in the majors this year. In a disastrous relief outing for the Reds yesterday, the right-hander surrendered four runs (three of which were earned) on four hits while failing to strike out a batter in his single inning of work. Busenitz also pitched for the Reds last year and did quite well in a limited role with a 2.57 ERA and 2.26 FIP across seven frames. Busenitz’s time with the Reds was his first taste of big league action in nearly half a decade, as he spent four seasons pitching for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball from 2019 to 2022. The majority of Busenitz’s limited big league experience came prior to his time overseas, when he pitched to a middling 4.58 ERA in 51 appearances across the 2017 and ’18 seasons in Minnesota.

Reds Sign Casey Kelly To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed right-hander Casey Kelly to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Louisville, per an announcement from Louisville. Kelly, the son of Bats manager Pat Kelly, was released by the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins last month.

Kelly, 34, was once a first-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2008. Included alongside Anthony Rizzo in the trade that brought Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, the righty was a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport prior to his big league debut with the Padres in 2012. Unfortunately, Kelly’s career in stateside ball didn’t take off the way his prospect status might have suggested. He struggled badly in his rookie season with a 6.21 ERA and 4.78 FIP in six starts for the Padres, and wouldn’t resurface in the big leagues until 2015. He struggled in brief cups of coffee for the Padres and Braves before eventually finding some small-sample size success with the Giants in 2018. In San Francisco, the righty pitched to a solid 3.04 ERA with a 4.22 FIP in seven appearances (three starts) that totaled 23 2/3 innings of work.

That performance wasn’t enough to earn him more playing time in the majors, but it did grab attention overseas, and Kelly signed his first contract with the KBO’s LG Twins prior to the 2019 season. Kelly turned in an excellent season in his first year overseas as he posted a sterling 2.55 ERA in 180 1/3 frames across 29 starts despite a strikeout rate of just 16.9%. Kelly remained with the club for more than half a decade and posted excellent numbers as a stalwart of the Twins’ rotation, with a 3.08 ERA in 875 2/3 innings of work entering the 2024 season.

While some reporting indicated that there was stateside interest in Kelly’s services this year, the right-hander remained with the Twins on a one year deal during the offseason. His results took a turn for the worse this year, however, and he surrendered a lackluster 4.51 ERA while striking out just 13.9% of opponents in 19 starts before he was eventually cut loose to make room on the club’s roster for newly-signed righty Elieser Hernandez. That’s opened the door for Kelly to return to stateside ball for the first time since 2018, though he’ll do so with a Reds organization where he faces some stiff competition to make it to the major league level.

Cincinnati is currently deploying a rotation of Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Nick Martinez, and Carson Spiers with Jakob Junis in a multi-inning relief role. Of that group, Junis’s 108 ERA+ is the weakest, leaving no obvious weak link to be replaced. An injury or two could open up spots with the big league club, of course, but even then Kelly would have to put himself ahead of not only fellow non-roster veterans like Justus Sheffield but also pieces already on the club’s 40-man roster like Lyon Richardson in order to crack the big league roster. Still, it’s certainly possible to imagine a strong showing from Kelly in the minors down the stretch leading to further interest in his services in affiliated ball headed into the 2025 campaign, even if he doesn’t receive an opportunity in the majors this year.

Elieser Hernández Signs With KBO’s LG Twins

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have signed right-hander Elieser Hernández, as relayed on X by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net. The righty will make an annual salary of $440K. KBO clubs are only allowed to roster two foreign-born pitchers, so the Twins have put righty Casey Kelly on waivers to make room for Hernández.

Hernández, 29, once looked like he was emerging as a viable rotation candidate with the Marlins but has endured his share of struggles in recent years. He started 17 times for the Fish over 2020 and 2021, logging 77 1/3 innings with a 3.84 earned run average. He struck out 26.3% of batters faced in that time and limited walks to a 5.7% clip.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been near that kind of form since then. He struggled in 2022, getting bumped to the bullpen and also to the minors at times, finishing the year with a 6.35 ERA at the major league level. He was traded to the Mets going into the 2023 season but that ended up being a lost year for him as a shoulder strain prevented him from pitching in the majors and limited him to just 9 1/3 minor league frames pitched on a rehab assignment.

Here in 2024, he spent some time with the Dodgers and Brewers. He has a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 innings at the major league level and a 2.83 ERA in 28 2/3 innings in Triple-A. He recently elected free agency after being designated for assignment by Milwaukee and will now look for a rebound overseas.

Plenty of pitchers have been able to reinvent themselves in the KBO and have then come back to Major League Baseball, including Josh Lindblom, Merrill Kelly and Chris Flexen. The most recent success story is Erick Fedde, who won MVP in the KBO last year and parlayed that into a two-year deal with the White Sox. He’ll make $15MM on that pact and seems likely to be traded to a contender since he has a 2.99 ERA through 19 starts this year. That would be an absolute best-case scenario for Hernández but there’s plenty of precedent for guys going down this road and doing well for themselves.

As for Kelly, 34, he pitched for a few MLB clubs last decade but has been with the LG Twins since 2019. He has a 3.25 ERA in almost 1,000 innings for that club but his ERA has jumped to 4.51 this year. He was striking out 23% of batters faced in 2022 but that number dropped to 17.3% last year and is down to 13.9% in 2024.

KBO’s LG Twins Re-Sign Casey Kelly

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Right-hander Casey Kelly has re-signed with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, tweets Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap. He’ll make $1.5MM for the 2024 season.

Kelly heads back to the Seoul-based franchise for a sixth season. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi suggested earlier this month that the 34-year-old could be on MLB radars. While it’s possible he found some amount of big league interest, he’s clearly comfortable with the KBO’s defending champions.

A former first-round pick of the Red Sox, Kelly struggled to a 5.46 ERA with three clubs over parts of four MLB seasons between 2012-18. He has been a durable and effective starter since making the jump to Korea for the 2019 campaign. He has started between 27 and 30 games in each of his five KBO seasons, topping 166 innings annually. This past season’s 3.83 ERA was the highest of any those years.

The Twins also re-signed outfielder Austin Dean last week. That duo is joined by newcomer Dietrich Enns as the team’s three foreign-born players. Righty Adam Plutko did not re-sign and is seeking MLB opportunities this winter.

Recapping The KBO League’s International Player Signings

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With the lockout slowing MLB-related transactions to a crawl of minor league deals, transactions involving Korean Baseball Organization teams have taken more of a spotlight on MLBTR’s pages since the start of December.  These moves have included the signings of several names familiar to North American baseball fans, as the KBO League’s clubs have looked to address their allocated three roster spots for non-Korean players.  International-born players can only sign contracts worth a maximum of $1MM in total salary, and players new to the KBO League can sign only one-year pacts.

Though the Doosan Bears have one signing that still isn’t yet official, the other 29 slots have been filled.  It is still possible this list could be adjusted in the coming weeks due to a number of factors — injuries, players returning to North America (for personal reasons or a deal with an MLB team), issues related to the pandemic, or teams just changing their minds after seeing the players in training camp.  Here is the rundown of this winter’s international signings for the 10 KBO League franchises….

Doosan Bears
Jose Miguel Fernandez (deal not yet finalized), Ariel Miranda, Robert Stock

NC Dinos
Nick Martini, Wes Parsons, Drew Rucinski

Hanwha Eagles
Ryan Carpenter, Nick Kingham, Mike Tauchman

Lotte Giants
Charlie Barnes, DJ Peters, Glenn Sparkman

Kiwoom Heroes
Tyler Eppler, Eric Jokisch, Yasiel Puig

SSG Landers
Kevin Cron, Wilmer Font, Ivan Nova

Samsung Lions
David Buchanan, Jose Pirela, Albert Suarez

Kia Tigers
Socrates Brito, Sean Nolin, Ronnie Williams

LG Twins
Casey Kelly, Adam Plutko, Rio Ruiz

KT Wiz
William Cuevas, Odrisamer Despaigne, Henry Ramos

KBO’s LG Twins Re-Sign Casey Kelly

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Right-hander Casey Kelly has re-signed with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Kelly will receive a base salary of $1.2MM, with a further $300K available in incentives. The Twins also signed Adam Plutko a few days ago, bringing them up to the maximum of two foreign pitchers. As Yoo points out, this means they will not be bringing back left-hander Andrew Suarez.

Kelly was a highly-touted youngster, being a first-round draft pick of the Red Sox in 2008. Boston gave Kelly a bonus of $3MM, which was a franchise record at the time. He quickly came to be considered one of the top prospects in the game, appearing on Baseball America’s Top 100 for four consecutive seasons from 2010 to 2013 and headlining the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox.

The righty made his debut with the Padres in 2012 but had to be shut down due to Tommy John surgery after just six starts. He eventually made it back to the big leagues for brief stints with San Diego in 2015 and Atlanta in 2016, but with uninspiring results. He then had a nice showing with the Giants in 2018, logging an ERA of 3.04 over 23 2/3 innings.

That run with the Giants was enough to pique the interest of the LG Twins, who brought Kelly to Korea for 2019. Since then, Kelly has got into a groove and thrived, spurring rumors each year that he would be considering a return to MLB. In 2019, he threw 180 1/3 innings over 29 starts, putting up an ERA of 2.55. In 2020 and 2021, his ERA slipped just over 3.00, but he still made at least 28 starts and threw over 170 innings in each campaign. In total, over the three seasons with the Twins, he’s thrown 525 1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.96. That sort of consistent production has drawn the attention of MLB teams, but the 32-year-old is staying in Korea for a fourth straight season.

As for Suarez, he will no longer have a place on the Twins’ roster. The southpaw was a second-round pick of the Giants in 2015 and made his MLB debut in 2018. He made 29 starts that year and logged 160 1/3 innings with an ERA of 4.49. 2019 was a bit of a setback, as he bounced between Triple-A and the big leagues, with an ERA close to 6.00 at each level. With 2020’s shortened MLB campaign and canceled minor league season, he was frequently optioned and only got to throw 9 2/3 innings.

He signed with the LG Twins for 2021 and seemed to get back on track, appearing in 23 games, 22 of them starts, with an ERA of 2.18 and 126 strikeouts over 115 1/3 innings. Despite that strong showing, the club has seemingly moved on to Plutko, which leaves Suarez available to pursue other opportunities. Given that Suarez is just 29 years old and coming off a strong campaign, he should garner plenty of interest from other clubs.

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