Jared Kelley was the Chicago White Sox‘s 47th overall pick in the 2020 draft. He is someone that has an interesting future down the road. Kelley played varsity baseball as a freshman in high school, where he was named the District 32 Newcomer of the Year after going 7-1 on the mound with a 1.16 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 60.1 innings.
His Junior year at Refugio was insane, posting a 0.22 ERA with 144 strikeouts. Kelley is also remembered for his time with Team USA during the fall in the Under-18 Pan American Championship, helping the team win a gold medal.
It will be interesting to see when we would eventually see Kellly on this team as we are probably far away from it. Recently, Kelley got assigned to Low-A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at the beginning of the 2021 season. When he started in the Arizona Complex League before moving to Kannapolis, he put up an 0-7 record and had a 7.61 ERA in 12 starts and 27 strikeouts in 2/3 innings.
During the season, he suffered an injury scare for the organization where he was experiencing some elbow soreness from a bullpen session. The organization, in turn, decided it would be wise to be cautious at the time as Kelley is a significant prospect for the Sox so it only made sense to rest him.
The Chicago White Sox has a lot of faith in Jared Kelley as he continues to develop.
For a guy who has raw talent and abilities that need to be brought out, the Sox do have the luxury of being patient with him to develop him to his full potential. Of course, the Sox have a lot of talented pitchers, not just in the starting rotation but in the bullpen as well.
We have to remember this kid is pretty young at 20 years old. White Sox fans should be patient with him and let him develop entirely. Scouts have even gone on record and said this guy has the potential to be even better than Garrett Crochet which at this point remains to be seen.
It will be interesting to see (whenever Kelley is ready) what role will he be put in to fill. As mentioned before, this starting rotation is a deep one and the bullpen might see added additions down the road. Honestly, it might be a while before Kelly is up but once he is ready the wait will be worth it.