The Orioles have agreed to a 40-man deal with righty Michael Kelly, president of baseball operations Dan Duquette told reporters including MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli (via Twitter). He became a minor-league free agent at the end of the season.
Kelly, 25, reached the Triple-A level in each of the past two years in the Padres organization. He has struggled rather notably there, though he has had some success at Double-A. In 15 starts at the penultimate level of the minors in 2017, Kelly ran a 2.98 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 over 84 2/3 innings.
Lol. Sign a guy who can’t pitch in AAA to a 40 man deal. That’s a new one.
Most pitchers have difficulty pitching at El Paso. I have been watching how the Pitchers develop there since the Padres moved there from Tuscon [also a difficult place] and very few come out of there looking good. Lamet [currently in the Padre rotation] being the exception. If Kelly does not work out [I think there is a chance he will] just release him.
I don’t know much about Michael Kelly but it seems like he has a control issue. I don’t think that’s an El Paso problem. 2 guys in the rule draft today plus this guy, hopefully we start filling out our 40 man roster spaces with legitimate major leaguers.
Poor guy, going from the second worst pitcher developing team to the worst. Maybe the change of scenery will help
Hopefully getting out of the PCL will put his development on track. I’ll never understand why teams put minor league affiliates in places like this. It makes hitters look better than they are and kills the confidence of pitchers.
I know right
Probably will transition into a RP