Pirates shut down ailing reliever Keone Kela for 10 days

Keone Kela felt fine after his most recent rehab appearance, and the Pittsburgh Pirates medical team was ready to plot its next move for getting the reliever back on the active roster.

But after a couple of days of long toss followed by a bullpen session Thursday, it became apparent Kela wasn’t ready to face major league hitters.

“It just didn’t feel right,” Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said. “There was not one specific throw, wasn’t one specific pitch in the bullpen. This was just a recurrent discomfort that is not allowing him to pitch right now.”

So the Pirates decided to shut Kela down for a 10-day period that began Friday.

“The medical team — the physicians — feel that with this approximately 10 days of rest that they can get the arm, the shoulder, the body in a better position to move forward and compete the rest of the year,” Tomczyk said Saturday.

Keone Kela (shoulder) said his fastball velo was around 91-94 mph when he pitched for Indy a week ago. "I just want to go back to the drawing board and get myself right so I can come up here and give the organization and myself and my teammates behind me the best version of me.”

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) June 1, 2019

Kela has a 4.63 ERA with six runs and 11 hits (three home runs) allowed in 11 2/3 innings in 14 games this season. He has been on the injured list since May 6.

Kela was the Texas Rangers closer last season before the Pirates acquired him at the trade deadline. In 30 games for the Pirates since Aug. 1, Kela has a 3.67 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 27 innings.

In Kela’s stead, the Pirates have mostly used Kyle Crick and Francisco Liriano as the late-inning bridges to closer Felipe Vazquez.

“It’s just not right where it’s at right now,” manager Clint Hurdle said of Kela’s arm, “so (we’ll) reevaluate it and have another course of direction.”

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