Louisville skip Kelly loves delivering good news
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When players get the news that they are going up to the Major Leagues -- whether it’s an elite prospect or a player who has toiled for years in the Minor Leagues -- the odds are pretty good that it will be delivered in person by Triple-A Louisville manager Pat Kelly.
“I think that’s the best part of my job, to be able to tell guys, especially for the first time, they’re going to the big leagues,” Kelly said during Spring Training in Goodyear, Ariz. “Last year, there were a couple of guys that I don’t think expected it.”
Kelly is managing at Louisville for the fifth consecutive season, but has spent nearly two decades as a skipper or coach in the Reds organization. He finished 2022 as one of four Minor League managers with at least 1,880 wins. In that time, he has also mastered the fine art of telling players that their dream has come true -- often with a surprise twist.
One example is Reds reliever Fernando Cruz, who at 32 on Sept. 2 of last season, was the oldest Reds player to make his big league debut since 38-year-old lefty pitcher/outfielder Pat Scantlebury pitched vs. the Cardinals on April 19, 1956.
The topic of Kelly’s postgame meeting the night before was to complain about players’ use of electric scooters inside the stadium.
Then, Kelly turned to Cruz and told him, "'You, you're going to have to take your scooter to Cincinnati.’”
Cruz, who had knocked around Minor Leagues, independent leagues, winter leagues and international baseball for 15 years, was mobbed by his teammates in an emotional celebration.
“With Cruz, that day the front office had been complaining about guys coming down the hallway with their scooters,” Kelly recalled. “I was going to have a meeting on it and all of a sudden, it just worked out.”
Starting pitcher Graham Ashcraft, catcher Chris Okey and Chuckie Robinson and third baseman Spencer Steer were among some of the players promoted to Cincinnati in 2022.
The Reds have several coveted prospects playing this season at Louisville who could get their dream news with a dash of misdirection. Once Kelly is given word by the front office to send a player up, there’s not a lot of scripting his delivery.
“I’m very good on the fly and improvising. I try not to plan it,” Kelly said. “My trainer, Steve [Gober], always wants to plan everything out. He gives me his idea and I say, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’ … It’s not anything you plan. It just happens.”
Senior Reporter Mark Sheldon has covered the Reds for MLB.com since 2006, and previously covered the Twins from 2001-05.