Congrats to former JMU pitcher Kevin Kelly for making the Rays active roster. Given that he is breaking camp with the big club, it's highly likely he becomes the first Duke to make his major league debut since Ryan Reid, ten years ago.

Kelly's climb has been really impressive given the fact he was a 19th or 20th round pick and along with the rest of the minors, missed a year of minor league work due to covid.

The Rays took Kelly from the Guardians under the Rule 5 draft, as I recall.

(03-28-2023 08:53 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  The Rays took Kelly from the Guardians under the Rule 5 draft, as I recall.

Rule 5 guys have to be with the big club or released. Good for him.

(03-28-2023 08:53 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  The Rays took Kelly from the Guardians under the Rule 5 draft, as I recall.

Correct. Cleveland has done well drafting guys in those later rounds and developing them, especially pitchers. They gave Kelly $100k bonus, the guy in front of him was taken from East Carolina with a $3k bonus (and appears to be out of baseball), so a frugal franchise saw something they liked. Kelly has pitched well this spring so it's good to see he earned a spot in the bigs.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/202...josh-lowe/

https://www.draysbay.com/2022/12/8/23499...t-for-2022

these name posts really scare me

(03-28-2023 08:59 AM)NC Tribe Wrote:  

(03-28-2023 08:53 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  The Rays took Kelly from the Guardians under the Rule 5 draft, as I recall.

Rule 5 guys have to be with the big club or released. Good for him.

They have to be offered back to the club that they were drafted from, or you have to work out a trade to keep them.
Regardless, congrats to him and good for JMU Baseball.

(03-28-2023 09:21 AM)PGJMU Wrote:  these name posts really scare me

LOL I have no idea why...haha

(03-28-2023 09:21 AM)PGJMU Wrote:  these name posts really scare me

Congrats are in order!!!!