Pittsburgh Pirates News: Keone Kela Tests Positive for COVID-19

Wednesday night, manager Derek Shelton confirmed that the reason Pittsburgh Pirates closer Keone Kela is on the 10-day IL is due to testing positive for COVID-19

Last week, the Pittsburgh Pirates placed closer Keone Kela on the 10-day injured list. When the move was made, it was not known as to why Kela was put in the 10-day IL. Now, we known why the Pittsburgh Pirates will be without their closer to start the season.

Following the team’s Wednesday evening exhibition against the Cleveland Indians, manager Derek Shelton announced that Kela has indeed tested positive for COVID-19. Shelton confirmed that Kela gave the Pittsburgh Pirates permission to release this information.

Kela has battled injuries since coming to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the 2018 July trade deadline. Kela’s 2018 season was cut short due to injury, and he pitched in just 32 games and 29.2 innings in 2019. Now, he is battling his worst injury yet as he battles COVID-19.

When healthy, Kela is one of the best relievers in the National League. Unfortunately, he has not been healthy very often with the Pirates. With the Pirates, Kela has posted a 2.40 ERA, 3.33 FIP and a healthy 30.7% strikeout rate in 45 innings of work.

Kela is set to become a free agent when the season ends. Due to this, the Pirates were undoubtedly going to look to trade him before the August 31 trade deadline. That may be difficult to do now, though.

Without Kela, the Pirate bullpen will undoubtedly be in flux. Nick Burdi and Kyle Crick may battle it out for 9th inning outings. However, Crick struggled mightily in the Grapefruit League/exhibition play, and has struggled mightily dating back to late May 2019. It goes without saying that the Pirate bullpen needs Kela to help right the ship.

That said, all of that is secondary right now. Hopefully, Kela will have a full and speedy recovery from COVID-19 and he’ll be able to rejoin the Pirates soon.