Detroit Tigers catcher Carson Kelly went from released to reliable

Posted on by Vaseline

play

It happened on August 15, 2023.

That was the day the Arizona Diamondbacks fired catcher Carson Kelly.

Four days later, the Detroit Tigers signed Kelly to a one-year contract for the remainder of the 2023 season, with a $3.5 million club option for the 2024 season. The Tigers signed the contract in early November in hopes of taking advantage of several midseason moves.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” Kelly said last August, before his first game with the Tigers, “but I’m grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to getting to know the guys.”

LET’S MAKE A DEAL: What the Tigers Could Get From the Orioles and Dodgers in the Tarik Skubal and Jack Flaherty Trades

The Tigers, led by president of baseball operations Scott Harris, identified Kelly as a player they could help improve, designed a playing plan for him to improve on offense and defense, and guided him to the finish line. The 30-year-old, a nine-year MLB veteran, went from a released catcher to a reliable prospect in less than a year.

It was a successful project by the Tigers.

“I feel like it means my best years are yet to come,” said Kelly, whose right forearm fracture derailed his production last season. “I’ve been underperforming pretty badly, right? Breaking bones, not performing the way I want to, and then building myself back up, I feel like I’m still getting better, and I’m really proud of that.”

In 2024, Kelly is hitting .239 with seven home runs, 16 walks and 39 strikeouts in 58 games. Behind the plate, Kelly is the personal catcher for right-hander Jack Flaherty, who has an elite 2.82 ERA in their 16 starts together.

The Tigers, however, are shopping Kelly ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline because he’s playing on an expiring contract. If Kelly is traded, the Tigers will promote Dillon Dingler — a 25-year-old prospect who is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster — to make his MLB debut.

CATCHERS: Tigers have a legitimate duo in Carson Kelly and Jake Rogers. Here’s what stands out

Whatever happens, Kelly has extended his MLB career because the changes he made in the offseason led to his above-average performance in the 2024 season.

When the Tigers signed Kelly, they wanted him to improve his defensive skills and his hard contact in the air on offense, so they instructed him to switch to one knee behind the plate and change his batting motion at the plate.

“It was really an experimental off-season,” Kelly said.

Kelly, who coaches at EForce Sports and The Yard Baseball Academy in Beaverton, Ore., said the biggest keys were bat speed and time to contact. He doesn’t have the fastest swing, but he sped up his time to contact by lowering his hands to his chest as part of his mechanics.

This change allowed the swing to be more adaptable, allowing the bat to get to the ball faster than ever before, giving him more time to decide whether or not to strike.

“Everyone came together to work on a plan,” Kelly said. “My hitting workouts were front-side stuff, using my core, working on bat speed, working on different positions to figure out I’m stronger when my hands are lower, tilting my stance. There’s so many different aspects.”

OFF-SEASON WORK: Tigers catcher Carson Kelly has ‘fallen in love with the process’ of making adjustments

Not wanting to leave any details unseen, Kelly traveled to The Baseball Performance Lab, run by Marucci Sports, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He went there with his younger brother, Parker Kelly, to have a bat fitted to his new swing.

“He’s a thinker,” said Parker, who played baseball in college at Oregon and in the minor leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals. “He writes a lot of stuff down. It’s something our dad taught us, taking notes, writing things down and being able to look back at things. The offseason was super fun. It started with going to Marucci.”

The Kelly brothers, who had been equipped with golf clubs in the past, boarded a plane in Portland, Oregon, on November 20 and landed in Baton Rouge that evening, where they picked up a rental car. They spent four hours at Marucci’s headquarters the morning of November 21 and returned home to Oregon that evening.

A lot happened in those four hours.

“He comes back with a bat that’s right for his swing,” Parker said. “We walked away with two different options that he really liked and that would work for his swing and what he does. He had a model that he’d never swung before and he stuck with it.”

Over the past three offseasons, several MLB players, most notably 2022 National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt and eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, have traveled to the lab to have custom bats fitted.

The clubs are made using swing data collected by a dozen sensors connected to the body.

The lab is equipped with the latest technology.

“That was a huge journey for us,” Parker said. “He was the test dummy. He put all the sensors on it and got that super-advanced look. How is your bat holding up? How are your hips moving? What is your strength on this side? How strong is your left hand? How strong is your right hand? “There are so many different things they captured.”

It wasn’t just The Baseball Performance Lab at Marucci Sports.

Kelly also credits Tigers hitting coaches Michael Brdar and Keith Beauregard and Tigers performance coach Shane Wallen. There were also several key members of the offseason team he describes as his inner circle — namely Parker, physical trainer Kent Morimatsu, performance coach Stephen Dempsey and personal hitting coach Kory Casto.

But Kelly deserves more credit than anyone.

He worked hard on it.

“And then you go into spring training,” Kelly said. “You think, I’m going to trust it. I’m going to trust all of my work, regardless of the results in the beginning. In the beginning, the results were good. When you’re in a little bit of a slump, you’ve got to trust it again and stay the course, and then you come out of it and it gets a little bit better. Just keep trusting the work.”

Kelly not only improved his offense, he improved his defense by switching to a one-knee formation. He always threw out runners with his strong arm, but when he changed his formation, he took his receiving to the next level.

“When he came here, there was a lot of talk about his defense, getting down on one knee and just trying to be a solid defensive catcher,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Maybe not enough attention was paid to the offensive adjustments he was able to make over the winter. He’s a real offensive threat.”

Last August, Kelly was out of the professional baseball team for several days.

He was released by the Diamondbacks.

Everything changed when the Tigers signed him and presented a plan to revive his career.

“His willingness to adapt and his commitment level ultimately matched up,” Parker said. “We got some good data, we got a plan and he got another chance, and obviously Detroit played a big part in that. He came back super excited for the offseason. He felt like he had a fresh start on something that was super exciting.”

Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show, “Days of Roar,” on demand every Monday afternoon on freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And listen to all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.

Avatar for Vaseline
Vaseline https://newspowergreen.biz.id

You May Also Like

More From Author