pitcher Merrill Kelly (37) of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who is considered the best among KBO league counter-export players, is poised to make a career high season. With his 37-year-old pitching, he is making his way to the FA jackpot.메이저놀이터
Kelly started the home game against the Seattle Mariners in the 2025 Major League Baseball at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on the 10th (Korea Standard Time), and pitched six innings of four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.
He went down with a 2-0 lead, and had his seventh win of the season and his 60th career win, but the bullpen blew the victory. The batters added two more runs in the seventh inning to lead 4-0, but gave up four runs in the ninth inning alone. Arizona won the game 8-4 thanks to Josh Naylor's walk-off grand slam in the 11th inning.
Although he missed the victory, Kelly's pitching was impeccable. Although there was a crisis with runners on the first and second bases with no outs in the second inning, he induced Rowdy Tellez to hit a double play on the second base and struck out Julio Rodriguez with runners on the first and second bases with no outs in the sixth inning, turning three batters into misfires and successfully pitching.
With a total of 92 pitches, he threw six pitches, including cutters (26), four-seam fastballs (22), changeups (20), sinkers (13), curves (8), and sliders (3). The maximum speed was 94.5 miles (152.1 kilometers) per hour sinker, and the average speed of four-seam fastballs was measured at 92.2 miles (148.4 kilometers).
Kelly's performance this season so far has been 6-2 in 14 games (82 innings), 3.18 strikeouts, 79 WHIPs with a 0.99 batting average. Except for 2020, when the season ended in five games, his ERA, WHIP, and hit rate are all career-high. He ranks third in the NL innings, fourth in the WHIP, fifth in the hit rate, tied for fifth in multiple wins, and 15th in ERA.
When he lost nine runs in three innings after three home runs against the New York Yankees on April 4, his second appearance of the season, he thought it would not be an easy season. However, he quickly recovered his performance to post five wins, one loss and 2.34 ERA in 12 games (73 innings).
Kelly, who was born in 1988 and will turn 37 in October, has a remarkable performance. The average speed of four-seam fastballs is decreasing a little every year, but the command to throw various pitches such as change-up, cutter, sinker, and curve is quite good.
Kelly will become an FA at the end of this season. Despite his old age, he has been showing steady performance, and hence he can expect a multi-year contract. He is a pitcher who can run for a long time, not through a fastball. If he continues this momentum, a 37-year-old free agent contract will not be his dream.
Kelly is the best reverse exporter in the history of the KBO League. He was scouted by the Major League after pitching for four years with the SK Wyverns (current SSG Landers) between 2015 and 2018. He was a minor league player before coming to Korea, but in recognition of his performance in the KBO League for four years, he signed an FA contract with Arizona in December 2018 for up to $14.5 million for two plus two years.
Kelly made a quick soft landing with 13 wins from his first major league debut year in 2019, and Arizona implemented a +2-year team option. Arizona continued its companion by giving Kelly a two-plus-one-year, up to $24 million extension in April 2022. He has continued his companion for seven years so far this year, executing another +1-year team option.
According to Spotrac, Kelly's cumulative income is 36.61 million dollars, or about 50 billion won in Korean won. He has earned nearly 10 times the amount of 3.7 million dollars he earned over the past four years in Korea. He has already succeeded sufficiently financially, but he is spending his career high season at age 37, raising expectations for a big hit as an FA.