The Pirates are remaining tight-lipped on the contractual violation that resulted in a team-issued two-game suspension for right-hander Keone Kela, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (subscription required) that Pittsburgh is “more than willing” to trade Kela. (Kela, according to Yahoo’s Tim Brown, got into an “altercation” with director of cultural initiatives Hector Morales.)
It’s been less than a year since the Pirates traded prospects Taylor Hearn and Sherten Apostel to the Rangers to acquire Kela in hopes of shoring up the bullpen not only for a possible 2018 run but also for the foreseeable future. The Pirates made that deal knowing that Kela had previously been demoted to the minors as a disciplinary measure back in Spring Training 2017, but the allure of a high-quality setup man with two and a half years of club control remaining was easy to see.
Kela, still just 26 years old, only elevated his stock down the stretch in 2018. He tossed 15 1/3 innings out of the Pittsburgh bullpen following the trade, holding opponents to five runs (2.93 ERA) on 10 hits and five walks with 22 strikeouts. The 2019 season has been another story. A shoulder issue has limited Kela to only 11 2/3 innings so far this season, during which he’s served up six runs on 11 hits (three homers) and four walks.
At this point, Kela hasn’t pitched in a big league game since May 4 due to said shoulder troubles. Coupled with a team-issued suspension, it’s safe to say that his value isn’t exactly at its apex. Even if that’s the case, though, Kela still has plenty of appealing qualities. He won’t turn 27 until early next season and is the owner of a solid 3.48 ERA with averages of 11.0 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and 1.01 HR/9 in 196 2/3 innings of big league work in his career. He’s earning an eminently affordable $3.175MM in 2019 ($1.16MM still to be paid out) and is controlled through the 2020 season. It’s impossible to say how much the brief suspension will impact his trade value without knowing what transpired, but the appeal based on his contractual status and track record on the mound is clear.
From a bigger-picture standpoint, the openness to moving Kela doesn’t portend a full-scale teardown in Pittsburgh. General manager Neal Huntington has suggested on multiple occasions that he has no intention of trading closer Felipe Vazquez — one of baseball’s best relievers — and it stands to reason that he has a similar view of long-term assets. However, the Pirates are just 2-8 over their past 10 games and have fallen to 7.5 games back in the NL Central and seven back in the Wild Card hunt. Given their recent trajectory, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if shorter-term pieces like Kela, Jordan Lyles, Corey Dickerson and Melky Cabrera hit the block and found their way to other clubs.
Going to be selling him for 10 cents on the dollar. ATL might bite.
With the clubhouse culture the Braves seem to have right now, I think he’d turn his act around in Atlanta, this could be a very good get from the Braves if they’re interested or willing to go for him.
Kolby Allard for Keone Kela, who says no?
Braves say no … May e someone like Gohara?
Fangraphs ranks Gohara #9 and Allard #12. Either sounds fine.
Sean Newcomb, even. Whatever happened to him?
I don’t see the Braves trading Newcomb and definitely not for Kela.
Idk if it would even take Gohara or Allard to get Kela at this point.
Had a rough start to the year as a starter, came back as a reliever and has been awesome in his new role.
He will probably be given another chance to prove himself as a starter, but I wouldn’t mess with a good thing at the moment while he’s going right.
It’s not going to take Gohara or Allard for Kela at this point. The Pirates basically gave that up last year to get him. He hasn’t been particularly good this year and there’s a clubhouse issue hanging over his head. It’s going to be 2 lotto ticket types if they move him. There’s no way you get a ML ready starter in return for damaged goods.
In all honesty unless Kela is a gigantic clubhouse cancer.( Which is definitely possible, if not likely) You ought to just keep him and let him rebound. Anything you get is not going to be anywhere near the value Kela could bring. If they move him it is because they think it’s going to be addition by subtraction.
Definitely not going to be addition by acquiring a potential ML’er starter. Get that out of your head right now. Kela himself is a lotto ticket at this point; no team is going to give up more than a lotto ticket to get that.
He’s only pitched 11 innings this yr and was solid, so idk what ur talkng about.
I agree with jbigz..
Selling low on a reliever when bullpen is huge issue is bad logic regardless of the guys personality..
Pirates knew it when they traded FOR HIM.. so not an excuse to trade away..
11 innings 4.67 ERA/5.6 FIP. Not really a large enough sample size to draw any conclusions but he certainly wasn’t solid.
Despite what Brian Kenney might tell you, team chemistry is important. No team, especially one in a playoff hunt, is going to want to poison their locker room.
It was deemed unimportant in the past due to it being statistically immeasurable. Same was said about pitch-framing because teams didn’t know how to quantify it. It’s different now with more data.
All I know is that players in all team sports have always talked about team chemistry so I’m going to side with them and say that it exists.
The biggest flaw of the analytics community is randomly deciding that anything that they cannot quantify does not matter or even exist.
I doubt anyone will be eager to trade for him. He obviously has some issue that go beyond throwing a baseball.
Pirates knew this when they traded for him.
Pirates are in desperate need for bullpen help..
Kela & Vasquez were supposed to be the 1-2 punch at the back of the pen, yet Kela got hurt early and the pen fell apart.
Have trouble understanding why trading him now that he’s healthy is a good idea.
Kela is controllable through next year so would prefer they wait until next year’s trade deadline if they’re to fetch nothing in return as expected.
Did you think the Steelers should keep Brown?
Better question, do the Raiders have anything to lose by taking Brown?
Pirates aren’t the Steelers, they’re more like the Raiders so if this kid can help a dismal bullpen then it’d make more sense to keep him.
This is a fair argument.
If they get offered garbage, for sure keep him. I do wonder if the demand will far outweigh the supply at the deadline, allowing them to get a reasonable return in spite of his issues. If so, move him.
Hopefully the Braves are in on him over the likes of Diekman, Colome or Elias
Wouldn’t mind a Kela & Givens acquisition for the bullpen
I still don’t see why AA doesn’t blow away Arizona with an offer for Greinke. He is a proven ACE and he is signed for a few years he is not a rental.
The more money they add the better the prospect going back. I know he has a no trade but he is from Brave country so I believe he would accept a trade.
He really could be a strong mentor for all these young arms coming up. As MadBum would be as well but the Giants play kinda threw a wrench in that.
I was surprised Atlanta didn’t make a play for him this past off season, seems like it’s just a matter of time but every day that passes and the more I hear out of Braves FO makes it sound less and less likely that they’re willing to offer anything as far as prospects go.
In RE: to the Greinke comment that is.
I was going to say, Kela wasn’t available and was supposed to be the Bucs setup guy.
Not sure why Bucs would trade their setup guy now that he’s finally healthy.
Didn’t know central Florida was considered “Brave Country”
Orlando was not the home to the Braves spring training ????
I wanted him on the St Louis Cardinals before Pittsburgh traded for him but not now after finding out he’s a clubhouse cancer.
Maybe Yadi and the other leaders can change him around, but you don’t trade in your own division. I would ship him to LA or SD.
This is a relief pitcher that the Pirates should trade.
Keep one of Dickerson or Cabrera (whoever has less trade value) and move all of the other expiring contracts. Try to resign Melky and Liriano in the off season. Bring up Keller. Keep Agrazal in the rotation. Give Cole Tucker real playing time in September.
Agree with everything but Tucker. Where should he play? Certainly not over Frazier or Newman.
I’d think a package Dickerson/Kela trade could net a decent rotation prospect and a lottery ticket.
I like Adam Frazier, but he’s got 4 HR as a more or less everyday player, he doesn’t steal and his defense is below average. He should be a very nice bench piece.
The lowest hanging fruit to improvement by the Pirates is their defense. Trying to be a pitch to contact team without having good defense behind it is pretty moronic.
You already have to live with Bell’s (improving but still below average) defense, you can’t afford more holes. Hayes is said to be a potentially elite defender at 3B. We’ll see about the bat, but Tucker is a good SS. Newman is an upgrade over Frazier at 2B. Put Reynolds in LF where he belongs, along with Marte’s elite defense and the only hole left is Polanco in RF. This is much better than the current defense with Frazier and Moran and Newman at SS instead of 2B and would make the pitchers look better.
Agree with all of this. Frazier’s occasional hot surges with the bat do not outweigh his below average defense, especially when you remember that Bell is a below average defender as well. They don’t need Frazier as a lead off guy either with the way Newman has thrived there. Newman and Tucker are hopefully the future of their middle infield; Frazier is a utility player, either in Pittsburgh or somewhere else.
If Tucker can’t hit .250, he should not be on the major league team. So far it’s been below .200.
Kela pulled this same stuff in Texas. He fought with his coaches and teammates and on multiple occasions was disciplined for refusing to play.
They might get 10 cents on the dollar (and salary relief) for him, otherwise, he’s a clear non-tender candidate in the offseason. Have fun in the minors for the rest of your career Keone.
Between Kela, EGonzalez, and Lonnie Chisenhall (wtf on Lonnie), there is so much wasted $ and space.
As somebody who has followed Cleveland fairly closely, I made a serious comment when he was signed that Chiz will be lucky to play 10 games for the Pirates this season and was ridiculed for it.
Chiz is exactly like Danny Salazar – he has it down to a complete science on how to get paid and never have to show up to play a game for multiple seasons.
So, he’s the baseball version of Senquez Golson?
Nicely done!
Granted it’s a spit in a bucket for a larger market team but these guys were all counted on to be depth pieces and they’ve all been a total waste of resources so far. I think Lonnie has just given up at this point.
And people think NH is a good GM?
No serious people think he’s a good GM. He keeps his job because he has been good at hitting the owner’s budget targets.
From a baseball standpoint, NH has way more complete misses on deals than good ones (such as where he unloaded his closer to Washington). The Chris Archer trade alone will go down as one of the top 15 or 20 biggest trade screwups in MLB history. BucsDugout has a great article where they show every deal he’s ever done.
He really should be trying to repeat that Mark Melancon playbook and get a haul for Vasquez too before he turns into a pumpkin. And unload every single expiring deal he has, even for a lotto ticket.
The San Francisco Giants offered him their GM job before choosing between Farhan Zaidi and Chaime Bloom.
The comment section at DK’s site think he’s an idiot.
Evidently, they and not the Giants are serious people?
great buy low option. perhaps he’ll turn it around with a better team.
It’s all but certain that he’ll become the next Tyler Glasnow. Teams should line up with surprisingly good offers for him rather than missing out on this future superstar, who probably matured greatly over the past two days.
I think Pirates’ fans can forget about getting Allard or Gohara. Parsons is more likely
There’s no way a pitcher w clubhouse issues and a poor ERA/FIP (in a limited sample) is bringing back anything close to a ML ready starter. Allard isn’t a particularly good prospect anymore but that’d be a significant overpay for Kela.
Another wasted trade by the Pirates
I think it’s tougher to find a closer than it is to find a “director of cultural initiatives”.
Nobody on your trade list can get a decent return, Vasquez is the only one. Pirates need to build a core that is capable of winning then worry about a closer.
Seems like when another team wants to trade with a Pirates that they think their prospects are next Babe Ruth or Koufax. The Dodgers are stacked and want to win now. Who cares about prospects. They will steal smaller market teams player s those small markets can’t afford. MLB would be happy to see all major market teams in a World Series for next 10 years! Don’t be fooled, it is all about the cash. Follow the cash to the truth.
He’s going to the Twins, watch and see.
For the Braves a Kela acquisition has to be an additional bullpen arm to another bigger deal. In no way can he be the main bullpen piece for the deadline.
I like Kela’s play. Pirates traded a couple lower end prospects for him…. was definatly worth a shot.
If the pirates can get one or two back in a trade then great.
Pretty sure Hearn was the #7 prospect then. The other was a throw in.
Right a couple lower end prospects lol… hearn has a shot to be decent but woudln’t call him much more than a B type (but wouldn’t mind if he proves me wrong)
The Pirates front office is just brilliant….
Overpay for Kela and Archer and then one year later try and cut bait.
How have I been a fan of this team for so long.
How do you figure they overpaid for Kela? 2 low end nobodies? Just shut up.
Texas comes out looking great on this whole thing. Moved Kela for Hearn and Apostel (who looks like a steal) just before Kela blew up. Pittsburgh will be lucky to get just one solid prospect now.
They really had a disaster of a deadline last year.
It was like drafting Alexandre Daigle.
Everyone thought it was a good idea. Just didn’t work out.
Should just kick him to the Giants to help even out the fleecing they gave SF on the McCutchen trade 2 years ago. Man, Reynolds would sure be a nice piece for this team. #GoGiantsGo
Addison Russell for Keone Kela
Kela for Pedro Baez or any other of the Dodges gas can bullpen members! Just give the rate an a different face out of the pen.
The Dodgers had a clear shot at Kela a year ago and passed, apparently on account of the personality makeup issues we’re seeing from him now. They have to see their decision as being fully validated, and not without justification. I don’t see them being interested in Kela today at any price. Free would probably be too expensive now.
Pirates gave Texas Hearns which was a very good prospect and one of their best LP in their system. Pirates run by a bunch of bow hards.
He will be on the Mets next week.