Meet A Prospect : Shawn Kelley

Shawn Andrew Kelley was born on April 26th, 1984 in Louisville, Kentucky where he went to high school at Ballard High School in Louisville. Shawn spent his college years at Austin Peay State University in Clarkesville, Tennessee and now calls the new Yankees Stadium his home. With a 6'2" 220 lb frame coming out of college the Seattle Mariners drafted him in the 13th round of the 2007 MLB First Year Players Draft.

Shawn would make his professional debut for the Mariners A- affiliate before finishing the season in A ball for the Wisconsin affiliate. His 2007 pitching line would be 2-1 with a 2.40 ERA in 12 games and 15 IP while compiling 18 K's and a 1.467 WHIP. 2008 would see Kelley splitting time between three affiliates all the way from A ball to AA before the end of the season. Kelley would have a combined pitching line of 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA in 59 games in 62.1 IP while compiling 68 K's and a 1.139 WHIP. 2009 would see Kelley  pitch in the Arizona Fall League and for the AAA Tacoma affiliate before his call up to the majors after only three innings pitched in the minors that season. Shawn would see time in the minors in parts of 2010, 2011, and 2012 but was considered a major leaguer for the most part since 2009.

Shawn made his major league debut on  April 10th 2009 in a 5-4 Mariners win over the Oakland Athletics. Shawn pitched a full inning and struck out two batters and allowed one hit in his debut. All told in 2009 Shawn got into 41 games and pitched 46 innings while pitching to a 4.50 ERA with 41 K's, only 9 BB's allowed, and a 1.174 WHIP. Kelley would spent parts of the next three seasons with the big league Mariners club posting a career, to this point, pitching line of 10-9 with a 3.52 ERA with a career 1.250 WHIP. Kelley has a 0.8 career WAR as well as a reliever which is not a terrible number considering the few number of innings he has pitched in the majors.

Shawn was traded to the New York Yankees just a few weeks back for Yankees outfield prospect Abraham Almonte. Shawn will come to Yankees camp trying to win a spot in the Yankees bullpen and is more then likely in a direct competition with Cody Eppley. Both players have a minor league option left and Kelley is under team control until after the 2015 season so the competition should be a fun one to watch this spring.