Baltimore Orioles: Michael Kelly joins the 40-man roster

The only move that the Baltimore Orioles made in during the Winter Meetings was a measly minor league signing.

In what has become a constant of this off-season, Baltimore Orioles Dan Duquette signed another minor leaguer, this time Michael Kelly.

The signing was shared by the Orioles on their official Twitter page.

This boring signing of a subpar pitcher seems to capture the goals of this team: signing players on the cheap and hoping that something will happen.

Stats on Kelly

Kelly is 25 years old and has moved through the minor league teams in the San Diego Padres system. He was signed by the Padres in 2011 right out of high school. His best work was in Double-A, where he had an ERA of 2.95 in two seasons where he pitched 133 innings. But, in 91 innings of Triple-A ball, he has an ERA of 5.69. He has not yet pitched in the Major Leagues.

Sadly, Orioles fans are all too familiar with pitchers with ERAs over 5.00. It’s safe to say they hope to see some pitchers with lower ERAs in 2018.

He’s not very good

He is a right-handed pitcher and has been used as a starter during his time in the minor leagues. According to Fangraphs, Kelly could have been snapped up by another team during the Rule 5 draft. But, no one wanted him – so he stayed with the Padres. In November of 2016, Chris Mitchell of Fangraphs said about Kelly and a group of RHPs that were Rule 5 eligible:

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"“Most of the players listed below aren’t good prospects. If they were, their former teams would have protected them — or traded them to a team with an interest in stashing them. The baseball industry has effectively deemed each of these players to be a fringe prospect at best.”"

In fact, Kelly was near the bottom of a list of pitchers that most baseball fans have not heard of a year later. If this has Orioles fans shaking their heads, it is thoroughly understandable.

Not filling immediate needs

The team needs at least three starting pitchers who can throw at the Major League level. Yes, it is important to have a farm system with players who will someday be worthy of wearing an Orioles uniform. But, the team needs good pitchers now.

Next: Machado and Cubs trade idea

Hopefully, signings like this will not be the norm. The O’s have an extremely competitive AL East to play against in 2018. Minor league pitchers will not cut it, especially if the O’s plan to do anything to compete against the stacked lineup in New York or the high-quality pitching in Boston.