The Time of Carson Kelly on the Diamondbacks Comes to an End
Once viewed as the heir to Yadier Molina in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, Carson Kelly was set to be the catcher of the future for the Arizona Diamondbacks after they acquired him in the Paul Goldschmidt trade. Now, he's soon to be on a new team after being designated for assignment by the D-backs on Sunday. His time comes to an end after roughly five seasons with Arizona.
The former second-round pick of the 2012 draft was traded to the D-backs in December of 2018 in the massive Paul Goldschmidt trade. He was acquired along with Luke Weaver, Andrew Young, and Dominic Fletcher (Round B Competitive Pick). Now, the aftermath of the trade has led to the lone players being Emmanual Rivera (Weaver trade) and Fletcher. Kelly had a massive 2019 season when he showed the MLB world that he was Arizona's new franchise catcher. Although that was the "altered ball" season, Kelly tied Arizona's franchise record for home runs as a catcher with 18. He drove in 47, walked 48 times, and struck out in just 79 at-bats over 111 games. He added on 46 runs and 19 doubles en route to hitting .245/.348/.478 with a 112 OPS+. That proved to be his lone healthy season.
2020 was a tragedy for the entire Diamondbacks team, let alone Carson Kelly. He struggled mightily with a .649 OPS and 73 OPS+. He had six walks to 29 strikeouts and proved to be unable to repeat 2019 in the weird and shortened season. Then, in 2021, he got out to a huge start. From Opening Day to June 19th, over a span of 50 games, Kelly hit .260/.385/.460/.845 with 28 walks to 38 strikeouts, six doubles, eight home runs, and 26 RBI. It was a terrific start. It appeared that Carson Kelly was back to his hitting ways as the team's franchise catcher. Then, injury struck. He fractured his wrist and big toe.
That caused him to miss an extended period of time. He didn't return until July 30th and might've rushed coming back. From July 30th to the end of the season, Kelly hit just .221/.297/.364/.660 with 16 walks to 36 strikeouts, 20 RBI, five home runs, five doubles, and just never got the bat going. It was an unfortunate way to see his season this way. An injury disrupted a likely career season and it's hard to blame Carson for never getting the train back on track.
In 2022, there was optimism that Carson Kelly would regain his hitting stroke and be the hitter that he was for 2019 and the beginning of 2021. Unfortunately, he started off extremely slow. He started his season 0-20 and never got going from there. Then, he suffered a bad oblique strain that caused him to miss five weeks or so. That seemed to bother him for a while and Kelly just never got the bat to go.
Over the rough 2022 season, Kelly batted just .211/.282/.334/.617 with 29 walks, a massive 71 strikeouts, seven home runs, 18 doubles, and 35 RBI. So, with the addition of Gabriel Moreno, Carson Kelly was primed to be a backup full-time for the first time in his D-backs career at age 28. There was a lot of belief that he could do quite well in that role with a decreased workload. Kelly might rediscover that swing and create a dynamic duo with Gabby.
Unfortunately, that never got off the ground as Kelly got hit by a pitch in Spring Training and suffered a fractured forearm. It was almost laughable in the sense that this was yet another massive injury that Carson Kelly would have to battle back from. Most players get a few muscle strains, but Kelly gets broken bones. It's like he was snakebit, pardon the pun. He didn't make his season debut until June 12th. It was a tough first week back as he went 0-12 before getting his first hit of the season.
It was obvious that Kelly was pressing, but you can't blame him considering he knew he had to perform on a team in the hunt for a playoff spot. Plus, it took him time to get back into the form of hitting and catching following a missed spring training. From June 12th to July 22nd, a span of 18 games, Kelly hit just .175/.200/.246/.446 with a double, home run, five RBI, and a bad 2/18 walk/strikeout ratio. It seemed like the old Kelly was gone, lost to bad luck and some awful injuries.
However, his luck began to turn. From July 23rd to yesterday, August 12th, Carson Kelly hit .333/.433/.407/.845 and looked like the Kelly of old. He had five walks, five strikeouts, a strong combination, and nine hits in 27 at-bats. He stroked two doubles and had an RBI. That's perhaps the most confusing reason the Diamondbacks chose to designate him for assignment. Kelly was rounding into form and yet when they could've optioned Jose Herrera, they chose to cut bait on Kelly. Just last night, he had a double and two hits in three at-bats. They could've kept all three catchers and seen if Kelly continued to keep performing.
It would seem that the Diamondbacks knew they were not going to be offering Kelly a contract in what would be his final arbitration season. It would've cost them around five million dollars, an amount that Kelly was not deserving of from this year's play. However, he could've been non-tendered while keeping him for the stretch run. Regardless, the team will still pay Kelly the rest of his 4.275 million dollar salary minus the prorated portion of the big league minimum for whatever team Kelly goes to next for this season.
Kelly provided 3.6 wins above replacement and proved to be a pretty good defensive catcher, especially in terms of calling games. There's a reason that Zac Gallen wanted him to catch all his starts. Over 55 games and 327 innings, the Kelly-Gallen combination was lethal. Gallen had a 2.81 ERA, 103 walks, 371 strikeouts, and was absolutely dominant. That was on full display on Saturday when Gallen had eight strikeouts and one walk over six shutout innings.
However, it wasn't just Gallen that Carson Kelly excelled with over his time in the desert. He was the best catcher with Caleb Smith, Luke Weaver, Archie Bradley, and numerous others. He was top-two with Ryne Nelson and Merrill Kelly. In fact, with Kelly, they combined for a 3.71 ERA in 356.1 innings with 105 walks and 313 strikeouts. The only catcher that was better was Moreno.
He was the best catcher for Tommy Henry as well with them joining up for a 3.25 ERA, 20 walks, 48 strikeouts over 10 games, and 55.1 innings. Perhaps the most important sign was with Brandon Pfaadt. He was by far the best catcher in the pitcher's short amount of time in the MLB. He combined with Pfaadt for a 4.24 ERA, four walks, and 21 strikeouts in 23.1 innings.
The players in the clubhouse had formed a deep bond with Carson Kelly. So had Manager Torey Lovullo who tried his best to give Kelly a ton of chances to perform. Ultimately, while Lovullo still believed in him quite a bit and is still a huge fan of his, the decision was made to say goodbye to Kelly. Torey had these thoughts on Kelly being designated for assignment, as told to our own Michael McDermott.
"Carson was somebody that we brought in here that was going to get the majority of the reps, which he did. We just felt like it wasn't working on a level we wanted to see it work out, that's ultimately why the decision was made. It wasn't easy, there weren't easy conversations, especially when you have to sit down and talk to your athlete. He's been here a while, he's been here through some good times, some very difficult times. Coming out the other side, you want those players who have grinded through those moments to be here to get those good feelings, that's what make those conversations hard. He's going to find himself in the big leagues again."
The clubhouse lost a significant morale player who brought a lot of light-heartedness and smiles to a team that has been struggling quite a bit of late. However, this does show that the Arizona Diamondbacks and GM Mike Hazen are not afraid of making significant moves to shake up their roster in order to try to help the D-backs accomplish their goal of making the playoffs this year.
The D-backs and their fans will miss Carson Kelly, but this is not the end of Kelly's story in the big leagues. Merely, it's just the end of the second chapter. As Torey Lovullo said, Carson Kelly will be in the big leagues once again. The fans will be rooting for him as will Lovullo and the players, except for when he faces them. Once Carson Kelly appears in a game for his future third team, the third chapter will begin, one hopefully more successful than his time with the D-backs.
