St. Louis Cardinals activate Joe Kelly, claim George Kottaras off waivers

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The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that right-handed pitcher Joe Kelly has been activated off of the 60-day DL. To make room for Kelly, the Cardinals optioned left-handed pitcher Tyler Lyons to the Memphis Redbirds.

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In order to activate Kelly, the team transferred Jaime Garcia to the 60-day DL. By being on the 60-day DL, Garcia is not on the 40-man roster.

When Kelly was injured in mid-April, he carried a 0.59 ERA. Prior to starting tonight’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Kelly has made three rehab starts for the Memphis Redbirds–the most recent being this past Sunday, July 6.

Last season, Kelly won five straight starts and eight consecutive decisions from mid-July to September 6th. In games played after June 1st, Kelly posted a 1.97 ERA, third best for all Major League pitchers in that span of games.

With Yadier Molina on the DL and out for an extended amount of time, the Cardinals claimed catcher George Kottaras off of waivers from the Cleveland Indians. He’ll be added to the 25-man roster tomorrow and I would expect that Audry Perez is the player sent back down to Memphis.

In 305 MLB games, the catcher owns a .216 batting average with 32 home runs and 100 RBI. While his career average is not all that pretty, he hit .286 this season in ten games with Cleveland along with 3 home runs and four runs batted in.

It’s still within the realm of possibility that the Cardinals are not done yet. Last night during MLB Tonight, MLB Network studio analyst Eric Byrnes suggested that the Cardinals try to acquire Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzi. Tulo would be able to make up for Molina’s bat in the middle of the Cardinals lineup. Yes, such a move would be expensive and it would be interesting to see if the Rockies would interested in listening to what the Cardinals have to offer. Tulo has made no secret that he wants to play for a contender.