The Guardians announced Monday that they’ve signed left-hander Antoine Kelly to a minor league contract and invited him to major league spring training. The Bledsoe Agency client made his big league debut with the Cubs this past season.
Kelly, not to be confused with Pirates left-handed pitching prospect Antwone Kelly, pitched just 1 1/3 innings in his first call the majors. The 26-year-old (27 in December) held the Yankees scoreless in that one-off appearance. Kelly spent the remainder of the 2026 season pitching with the Triple-A affiliates for the Cubs and Dodgers, combining for 50 2/3 innings with a 4.62 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate and sky-high 16.7% walk rate.
That gives Kelly parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level. He hasn’t fared well there, logging a 5.82 ERA in 120 2/3 innings. Kelly’s 23.5% strikeout rate in that time is respectable, but he’s been his own worst enemy far too often, evidenced by a bloated 16.6% walk rate.
It’s not the most alluring track record, but Kelly is a former second-round pick (No. 65 overall to the Brewers in 2019) who has previously drawn praise for a dominant fastball/slider pairing that could make him an elite reliever if he could even get his command up from its currently dismal levels to merely below-average.
Kelly has pitched for five organizations already. Cleveland will be his sixth. None of the Brewers, Rangers, Rockies, Dodgers or Cubs have been unable to fully unlock the 6’5″ southpaw’s latent potential. Some of those clubs — Milwaukee and L.A., in particular — have a notable track record of helping coax new levels of performance out of talented but flawed pitchers. It hasn’t come together for Kelly just yet, but the Guards themselves have a pretty good track record on this front. Kelly has a minor league option remaining, so if he’s added to the Guardians’ 40-man roster at any point, he can be shuttled between Cleveland and Columbus for one more season before he’d have to stick in the majors for good.
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