Carson Kelly became a member of the Chicago Cubs via free agency in December of 2024. He was signed as a backup catcher to Miguel Amaya, who is a young, hopeful catcher. Although most didn’t expect much from Kelly, he exploded out of the gates. He and Amaya shared the catcher role at the beginning of the season, and he took that opportunity and ran with it.
Carson Kelly’s Offensive Struggles Continue
Scorching Hot Start
Carson Kelly’s start to the season pretty much came out of nowhere and surprised everyone. Through Kelly’s first 32 games, he slashed .301/.425/.612 and homered nine times. This includes two multi-homer efforts within four games. Even better, on March 31st, Kelly hit for the cycle against the Athletics.
Carson Kelly TRIPLES and has the first cycle of the 2025 season, the first for the Cubs since 1993! pic.twitter.com/mVzqUItITP
— MLB (@MLB) April 1, 2025
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This early production came out of nowhere, as his highest average in a season was .245 in 2019 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Additionally, his defense has been very good in the games that he has caught. Not only was he hitting the ball very well, but he wasn’t striking out either. Through those 32 games, Kelly only struck out 17 times. In fact, he walked 22 times, which is five more times than he struck out. This production from 30-year-old Carson Kelly gave the Cubs two great options at catcher. Miguel Amaya has had a great season this year, but has been on the injured list since May 24th with an oblique injury. Ever since Amaya went to the IL and Reese McGuire was brought up to replace him, Kelly’s numbers have been slowly declining.
Kelly’s Rough Patch
Carson Kelly has come way back down to earth after his steaming hot start. Since May 27th, three days after Amaya was injured, Kelly is slashing .135/.182/.173 in 16 games. His OPS is only .355 since then. This is horrendous compared to his early-season production and is 70 points lower than his OBP through his first 32 games this year. While no one expected him to keep up the numbers he was producing early on, most certainly didn’t expect it to get this bad. Kelly hit eight home runs in his first 20 games. Since then, he has played 28 games and has only hit one. Not only are his power numbers down, but he is also striking out more and walking a whole lot less.
As the season goes on, Kelly will most likely not get close to his early-season production again. That being said, there is still plenty of room to improve. Carson Kelly is a veteran player currently in his 10th season as a major leaguer. He is used to the league by now and has gone through slumps before, as has every other player. It will not be the end of the world because eventually his performance at the plate will level out and come back to life. Also, on the defensive side, Kelly has continued his production. Even with his slump at the plate, he has still given the Cubs a solid option behind the plate. With all the resources Kelly has access to, he is bound to break out of his struggles at some point this year.
Main Photo Credit: © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images
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