Kevin Kelly Is Re-emerging as a Rays Bullpen Weapon

Bullpen woes hit the Tampa Bay Rays hard to begin the 2025 season, but by season’s end, despite a 77-85 regular season record, they had MLB’s 12th best reliever ERA at 3.81 and tied for the third-lowest WHIP at 1.23 alongside the Cleveland Guardians and Chicago Cubs.

Numbers of that quality and caliber wouldn’t have been expected to start the year, but once again, Tampa Bay prevailed, outside of one key reliever, that is.

Right-handed sidearm savant Kevin Kelly, a rather unknown commodity upon making his big league debut in 2023, had become one of the Rays’ best bullpen arms over his first two seasons in MLB, boasting an ERA under 3.00, a WHIP under 1.00 and a 143 ERA+.

“The improvement that he’s made is that he’s added a cutter and a four-seamer that has hardly no carry at all, but it complements,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said in a Tampa Bay Times article in March 2025. “It plays like it’s got carry because of the run he creates on his other pitches. So, to have that to throw to lefties has really helped him out. It’s all about strike-throwing and the late movement.”

The 19th round selection out of James Madison accumulated a career 2.0 fWAR going into 2025, but as the Rays moved from Tropicana Field to George M. Steinbrenner Field due to the effects of Hurricane Milton, Kelly had seemingly lost his touch in the process. 

Someone that had become a reliable reliever for the Rays suddenly turned into anything but, posting a 5.90 ERA, 6.37 xERA and 5.66 FIP across 41 appearances and 39.2 innings pitched.

A left gluteal strain kept Kelly off the mound for the good part of two months in early April and upon his return, he just wasn’t himself, whether it be not fully recovered from injury or pitching in a completely new environment in Tampa, outdoors instead of indoors.

“This is a guy that we’re going to rely on who makes our bullpen better,” Cash said in a Tampa Bay Times article from August 2025. “There’s no dispute that we’re a better team when he’s in it and pitching right, but it’s been a grind for him lately. … His stuff is very similar to what it’s always been. Just hasn’t had the success.”

Cash’s final comments before Kelly was sent down to Triple-A Durham in August aren’t necessarily true as his four-pitch mix of a sinker, sweeper, cutter and four-seam fastball saw drastic usage changes from his debut season in 2023.

In 2023, Kelly nearly threw his sinker and sweeper the same amount in his debut season of 2023, using them 89 percent of the time, but a 48 percent usage rate on his sinker turned into 61 percent in 2024 and 59 percent in 2025.

Reliance on his sweeper decreased significantly from 41 percent in 2023 to as low as 20 percent in 2025, but at the same time, cutter and 4-seam usage jumped to 22 percent combined.

Opponents hit .309 off his sinker, .303 off the sweeper and .357 off his cutter last year as he proceeded to serve up 11 home runs in less than 40 innings, more than his previous two seasons combined.

Change needed to happen, and it was change that has helped right the ship in 2026, dropping his cutter in favor of a changeup, which has baffled opponents thus far.

“When I started throwing bullpens, I started messing around with grips,” Kelly said in an MLB.com article from June. “We tried a split-finger grip at first; that didn’t work at all. That was like a gyro slider. Terrible. We settled on what felt comfortable in my hand, which was just like a modified circle. … We kept tilting the ball until eventually it moved well.”

The pitch grip is unlike anything Kelly has thrown before, but it’s yielded results as opponents are hitting just .150 with a .200 slugging percentage off the change so far.

Kelly has allowed just nine hits in 60 at-bats on the changeup with hitters whiffing 30.5 percent of the time. It’s his second-slowest pitch behind his sweeper, averaging 85.9 miles per hour across 182 pitches thrown as of Saturday, but it’s also his second-most used pitch, throwing it 26 percent of the time, a complementary pitch to his sinker.

The change now finishes below the sinker in terms of movement, giving him more of an ability to change a hitter’s eye level throughout the duration of an at-bat and it’s seen him post career-best numbers so far in 2026, currently boasting a 2.05 ERA and 0.84 WHIP in 49 appearances and 52.2 innings pitched.

“This is the best version of Kevin Kelly,” Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “He is right now probably as good a version of himself as he’s been. He’s been huge for us.”