Texas Rangers 2017 preseason profile: Keone Kela
Following a very strong rookie season, Texas Rangers right-hander Keone Kela experienced a bit of a setback in 2016. We’ll see what he’s made of this season as he bounces back.
In 2015, Texas Rangers reliever Keone Kela was one of the game’s best young bullpen arms. In 68 appearances, he bailed the Rangers out of many tight situations en route to a 2.39 ERA with a 2.64 FIP. His 60 1/3 innings of work proved valuable to the eventual AL West Champions.
He earned his first and only big league save on June 17 against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. With 22 holds and seven wins, he quietly anchored a bullpen that badly needed a lights-out pitcher.
Because of this, the ceiling was high going into last season. Many thought he could eventually move into a setup role, or perhaps even see more time as a closer. Most anticipated a breakout year for the 23 year-old but instead he broke down.
The first half of 2016
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Perhaps it was the ol’ “sophomore setback,” or maybe just plain fatigue from heavy rookie usage, but Kela was not the same guy last season. While much of the Texas Rangers pitching staff flourished in 2016, he floundered.
Thanks to early season elbow surgery, he missed a huge chunk of April and all of May and June. It was clear before he missed time that something wasn’t right, though. In his first seven games, he pitched 6 1/3 innings, facing 30 hitters and throwing 138 pitches. Over that brief period of time, he surrendered three home runs, an AVG/OBP/SLG slash line of .269/.367/.615 and an ERA of 7.11.
He also had trouble hitting the strike zone to start the year, getting just 61% of his pitches into the strike zone. Although he earned three holds in that stretch, he just simply wasn’t effective.
The second half of 2016
Following his return, he looked a little better. In fact, he returned to form in July as hitters had an opposing slash of just .107/.194/.250 and 11 of the 31 batters he faced went down on strikes. While his ERA was a little high that month at 4.15, it all came from one bad outing on July 18 against the Angels in Anaheim.
But he had an outstanding month following that game, giving up just one hit against the next 20 batters he faced. He struck out six hitters and the opposing slash against him for the rest of July was .053/.100/.053.
It wasn’t so much that he had trouble getting hitters out, but that he struggled getting them out at the right time. When you look at opposing batting average and on base percentage, you see he was effective. However, he seemed to give up hits and home runs when multiple guys were on base. With nobody on, opposing hitters had an average of just .206, but they hit .271 with men on base and batted .363 with a runners on third and less than two outs. Amazingly, that average jumped to .500 when there was a runner on third with two outs.
What 2017 will look like
Chalk it up to mostly bad luck and injury problems, but 2016 was rough for Kela. That’s why this season shows a lot more promise for him.
Next: Rangers preview: Andrew Cashner
Kela will end up with about 70 innings and an ERA of 2.51, winning roughly three games. Opposing hitters will be less effective than last season against him with a slash of .230/.284/.308. He’ll be a menace against lefties and will provide some big innings late in games to finish with 25 holds. With his elbow problems hopefully in the past, he can get back to the level of play he displayed as a rookie.