MLB · P · Boston Red Sox
Zack Kelly
B/T R/R · 6' 3" · 231 lb · born Roanoke, VA, USA · age 31 · played P 29 · MLB debut 2022-08-29
Injured 60-Day · Right elbow inflammation. (roster status, as of )
71 batters faced scored this season His season card →
Scout’s note
Zack Kelly is a 31-year-old right-hander from Roanoke, Virginia, who reached the majors in 2022. He has 127 strikeouts in 115 career games — a middle-relief arm whose role is to get his outs and hand the ball off.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $1.07M
- Tax hit
- $1.07M
- Service time
- 3 yr 80 d
- Options left
- 0 / 3
The deal A1
On the sheet: A1
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — | — | — |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Boston Red Sox.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $0.79M
- Guaranteed
- $0.79M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Pre-Arb
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | Minimum | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Zack Kelly
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Zack Kelly cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
The Bureau on Zack Kelly
The scouting press, in their own words
The Over-Slot Podcast is here. Red Sox Scouting Director Jake Bruml joins the show. We discuss their polarizing 2026 Draft, the Jake Schaffner pick, high school talent galore, process in evaluating talent, and the 2027 Draft. Plus, I make the case for Gavin Kelly 1.1 in 2027. https://t.co/U0VeKHCZ0k
Umpire favor
-1.6 net runs over 8 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →