Boston Red Sox minor league players of the year announced

Lou Gorman Award (Trevor Kelley)

Love it, love everything about it. Trevor Kelley isn’t putting up the best numbers in the Majors, but he has thrown six innings so far.

Believe it or not, even Mariano Rivera had a bad few innings before. It’s not fair to judge someone off a few bad outings.

However, it’s pretty fair to look at someone’s season and career numbers. In 247 minor league innings, Kelley has a 2.37 ERA. Meanwhile, in 65 1/3 innings this year, the 25-year-old righty had a 1.79 ERA.

Kelley is often criticized for a bunch of ridiculous sabermetric stats. Don’t get me wrong, they serve a great purpose. But sometimes people take them too seriously.

Let’s look at the basics. Kelley had a 1.79 ERA, a .216 BAA and a 1.10 WHIP. Those numbers are great. He kept runners off base and didn’t give up runs.

Oh, he allowed a good amount of fly balls? Guess what? A fly ball could be a pop up barely out of the infield or a robbed home run. Let’s not pretend like they’re all the same thing.

Kelley will likely start 2020 in Triple-A though. Unless he really impresses over the last few games he won’t have a realistic shot at the Majors to start the season.

That being said, it’s something that should definitely be in the cards again for 2020. The Red Sox will definitely make some moves with their bullpen but he could easily be considered the “next man up”.

I know I’m beating a dead horse here. But I truly believe Kelley could be a serious asset to this team in the future. He’s still just 25 and looked better than he ever has in the minors this year. Why can’t we believe he’ll take the next step in 2020.