Antwone Kelly had an up and down 2024 with Bradenton
Right hander missed time due to an injury in 2024.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are deep when it comes to their pitching prospects. The top names get the obvious attention, but it doesn’t stop there, as they have some other intriguing names deeper in the system.
One of them who made the full-time jump to affiliated ball debut this past season was Antwone Kelly. After a two-game cameo in 2023, Kelly tossed 69 games for the Bradenton Marauders this season.
As you’d expect with most young pitchers, there were some noticeable ups and downs, but up to his injury, Kelly was pitching well.
He struggled in April, allowing 14 earned runs in 14 innings pitched. Half of those runs came in one game on April 11 against Lakeland.
It clicked in May, as he kicked the month off with five no-hit innings against Fort Myers. He also tossed four shutout innings on May 22, in which he struck out seven.
During the months of May and June, Kelly posted a 2.15 ERA in 46 innings, striking out 25.9% of the batters he faced, walking 9.2%, and holding opponents to a .175 average.
An injury forced him to miss all of July and most of August before making two appearances before the end of the season. He had a rough time in those outings, allowing seven earned runs in six innings.
If you ignore the two games he played at the end of the season, that drops his season-long ERA to under 4.00. If you go a little further and take out that blow-up game at the beginning of the year, his ERA is 3.01.
Getting beat up is part of the game, especially early on in development.
He has good movement on the fastball but needs to throw more strikes for it to play better. The change-up has a chance to be a solid pitch, as hitters whiffed 36% of the time against it, and when they did make contact, the quality wasn’t great (.214 xwOBA).
The slider didn’t miss many bats, but the quality of contact wasn’t great, either.
Kelly, 21, has some work to do, especially after missing time to an injury. He’s pitched enough to make a case to get pushed to Greensboro, although there is enough depth above him that it could force him back to Bradenton to start in 2025.
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I am Groot.
Kelly's CH didn't impress me live. I thought it was way too straight and had very little fade. And from what I remember not a ton of separation.
Even a bad CH will fool and is a devastating pitch to Low A hitters.I hope I'm wrong but I don't see it missing as many bats as he moves up.
I would personally have him repeat Low A this season too. Or at least start off back in Bradenton.