Carson Kelly

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Carson Franklin Kelly

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Biographical Information[edit]

Catcher Carson Kelly was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 2012 amateur draft, out of high school. He began his pro career that year with the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League and began to move up the organizational ladder slowly but steadily over the next few seasons. In 2016 he took some major steps forward, playing for the first time at AA, AAA and at the major league level after a September call-up.

Kelly doubled off Antonio Bastardo of the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first major league at-bat on September 5, 2016. He later came in to score on another double, by Randal Grichuk. He had come in as a defensive replacement for catcher Yadier Molina in the 7th inning. He hit .154 in 10 games that season, then in 2017, he hit .174 in 34 games as a back-up to Molina. Both years, he spent the bulk of his time in the minors. In 2016, he split his time between the AA Springfield Cardinals and the AAA Memphis Redbirds, hitting .289 in 96 games, with 6 homers and 32 RBIs. In 2017, he played 68 games for Memphis, hitting .283 with 10 homers and 41 at-bats.

In 2018, he started the season in AAA with Molina still firmly entrenched as the starter and the Cards preferring that Kelly receive regular playing time in the minors than sit on the bench in St. Louis. Veteran back-up Francisco Pena took the second catching slot in the majors. He was hitting .234 after 21 games when on May 6th he was called up when Molina went on the disabled list. He went 2 for 19 in 8 games before having to join Molina on the injured list on May 17th, victim of a hamstring strain. That left the Cards perilously short of experienced catchers at the major league level. Overall he played just 19 games in the majors, hitting just .114 with no homers and 3 RBIs. With Memphis, he played 83 games and hit .269/.378/.395 with 7 homers and 41 RBIs. Following the season, still blocked by Molina for the foreseeable future, he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks along with two other young players - P Luke Weaver and IF Andy Young - and a Compensation Round B pick in the 2019 amateur draft in return for All-Star 1B Paul Goldschmidt.

His first at-bat with the Diamondbacks was a memorable one. It came in the team's second game of the season, on March 29, 2019 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not start the game, but came in as a pinch-hitter in a 13-inning marathon and delivered the game-winning hit, a double off Yimi Garcia that scored Nick Ahmed, who had walked and stolen second base, for a 5-4 win. He was at it again on April 6th when his 9th-inning hit off Colten Brewer of the Boston Red Sox drove in Nick Ahmed from second for a 5-4 win. It was his third RBI of the night. He played a career-high 111 games that season, hitting .245 with 18 homers and 47 RBIs and an OPS+ of 112. He looked set to be Arizona's starting catcher for years to come, but was never able to find consistency. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he fell to .221 in 39 games, with 5 homers and 19 RBIs, and his OPS+ was very poor at 73.

Carson had a bit of a bounce-back season in 2021 when he played 98 games and hit .240 with 13 homers and 46 RBIs, resulting in an OPS+ of 104. In 2022, he was once again the Opening Day catcher for Arizona, but then missed a month of action between early May and early June with a strained left oblique and while he still played 104 games, the second highest total of his career, and did not commit a single error, his bat went cold, as he fell to .211 with 7 homers and 35 RBIs. His OPS+ was back in the territory it had plumbed in the COVID year, ending up at 75. After the season, the Diamondbacks pulled off a big trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, trading Daulton Varsho, who had been his back-up the previous season whole also playing the outfield, in return for OF Lourdes Gurriel and Toronto's top prospect, C Gabriel Moreno. Carson's days with Arizona were numbered from that point forward, as Moreno proved ready to take over the starting job in 2023. Kelly was relegated to the bench, hitting .226 in 32 games and only 84 at-bats before being released on August 15th. He was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers four days later and thus missed Arizona's deep postseason run that took the team to the World Series. For his part, he played 18 games for the Tigers, hitting .173.

He started the 2024 season with Detroit, seeing significant playing time as he shared a job with Jake Rogers. He got into 60 games by the end of July and hitting .240 with 7 homers and 29 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 104. Those were not bad numbers at all, but it was clear that Rogers would be the starting catcher going forward, and the Tigers had a very promising youngster in the minors ready to make his debut in Dillon Dingler. The Tigers appeared to be out of the postseason race at that point and sent away a number of veterans at the trading deadline, including Carson who was dealt to the Texas Rangers in return for minor leaguers Liam Hicks and Tyler Owens. The Tigers then caught fire over the final two months and bat all the odds to make it into the postseason, while Carson hit .235 in 31 games for the Rangers.

Kelly signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs before the 2025 season. His first start for his new team came at the Tokyo Dome on March 19th, in the second game of a two-game season-opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Japan. He went 1 for 3 in that game, the on March 31st, in the first-ever major league game played at Sutter Health Park, the new home of The Athletics in Sacramento, CA, he had the best game of his career as he hit for the cycle to lead Chicago to an 18-3 win. He was batting ninth in the game and the triple in the 8th inning that completed the feat - only the third of his big league career - was the first ever hit by a major leaguer at the ballpark. He hit the home run off Joey Estes in the 4th inning and finished 4 for 4 with 3 runs and 5 RBIs, in addition to a pair of walks. It was the first cycle by a Cubs player since Mark Grace had hit one in 1993, one year before Kelly was born.

Although he was signed out of high school, Kelly promised his parents he would still pursue a college education. He began taking courses from the Oregon State University in the fall of 2012, with the Cardinals paying for his tuition. He completed a bachelor's degree in economics in the spring of 2018.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Theo DeRosa: "The first cycle of 2025 season belongs to ... a catcher! Kelly's cycle punctuates an 18-run, 21-hit outburst for the Cubs", mlb.com, April 1, 2025. [1]
  • Steve Gilbert: "C. Kelly fills free time by filling his brain: D-backs catcher fulfills promise to parents by earning college degree", mlb.com, March 21, 2019. [2]

Related Sites[edit]

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