The Reds have chosen the contract of right-hander Casey Kelly, per a membership announcement. Proper-hander Alan Busenitz was designated for task to make room for Kelly on the membership’s 40-man and energetic rosters.
Kelly, 34, was a first-round decide within the 2008 draft and a consensus top-100 prospect early in his professional profession with the Crimson Sox. Kelly was packaged with Anthony Rizzo within the deal that introduced Adrian Gonzalez to Boston from San Diego, and Kelly’s pedigree as a high pitching prospect helped him to succeed in the majors throughout simply his second 12 months within the Padres group. That huge league debut left a lot to be desired, as Kelly pitched to a lackluster 6.21 ERA in 29 innings of labor throughout six begins with the Padres in the course of the 2012 season. Tommy John surgical procedure worn out Kelly’s total 2013 season, and he wouldn’t make it again to the majors till 2015 when he surrendered 13 runs (10 earned) in simply 11 1/3 innings of labor throughout three appearances.
That ended Kelly’s Padres tenure, and whereas he briefly discovered a job with the Braves as a multi-inning reliever in the course of the 2016 season, he wouldn’t discover success within the majors till 2018, six years after his huge league debut. In San Francisco, Kelly did fairly nicely whereas swinging between the rotation and bullpen, however even that success was short-lived as his 3.04 ERA spanned simply seven appearances and 23 2/3 innings of labor. Kelly’s transient stint with the Giants evidently earned him some consideration abroad, nonetheless, as after parting methods with the Giants he went on to pitch in components of six seasons for the Korea Baseball Group’s LG Twins.
In Korea, Kelly was a rotation stalwart who made between 27 and 30 begins every year from 2019 to 2023 whereas by no means posting an ERA greater than 3.83. Kelly reportedly obtained some stateside curiosity this previous offseason however selected to stay abroad, although his sixth season within the KBO didn’t go significantly nicely as he struggled to a 4.51 ERA in 19 begins earlier than being reduce unfastened final month. That led him again to affiliated ball, the place he signed a minor league deal with the Reds and was assigned to Triple-A Louisville. Kelly was managed by his father, Pat Kelly, whereas pitching for Louisville and carried out decently in two begins, with a 4.50 ERA regardless of a strikeout price of simply 5.6%. Latest accidents to Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott have now opened the door for Kelly to make his first huge league look since 2018, and the journeyman figures to offer Cincinnati with multi-inning reduction depth out of the bullpen whereas the membership makes use of a patchwork rotation that includes Julian Aguilar and Carson Spiers alongside Nick Lodolo and Nick Martinez.
Making manner for Kelly on the 40-man and energetic rosters is Busenitz, who departs the membership after making only one look within the majors this 12 months. In a disastrous reduction outing for the Reds yesterday, the right-hander surrendered 4 runs (three of which had been earned) on 4 hits whereas failing to strike out a batter in his single inning of labor. Busenitz additionally pitched for the Reds final 12 months and did fairly nicely in a restricted position with a 2.57 ERA and a couple of.26 FIP throughout seven frames. Busenitz’s time with the Reds was his first style of huge league motion in almost half a decade, as he spent 4 seasons pitching for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball from 2019 to 2022. The vast majority of Busenitz’s restricted huge league expertise got here previous to his time abroad, when he pitched to a middling 4.58 ERA in 51 appearances throughout the 2017 and ’18 seasons in Minnesota.
