Short Time 2016 Mets Third Baseman: Ty Kelly (2016)

Tyler Patrick Kelly was born July 20th 1988 in Dallas, Texas. His father Pat Kelly, was a basketball & baseball coach.

The six foot third baseman Tyler, attended high school in California & college at the Loyola Marymount, University of California at Davis. As a sophomore he led the Big West Conference with a .387 batting average & helped the Aggies reach the Division 1 Tournament.

He was signed by the Baltimore Orioles in the 13th round of the 2009 draft. His minor league career started off well, making All Star teams in 2009 in The NY / Penn. League, 2011 in the South Atlantic League,2012 in the AA California League & 2013.

In 2012 he hit .327 going from A ball up to AAA ball, followed by a .298 season in 2013. That year he was traded from Baltimore to the Seattle organization.


In 2015 he was sent to the St. Louis Cards organization, there he struggled (batting .203) and was designated for assignment. Kelly then got picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays. Overall on the year he hit just .226 but the New York Mets gave him a minor league contract for 2016.

He began his eighth year in pro ball in 2016 with the Mets AAA Las Vegas 51s. By May he was the leagues top hitter (.391)with 12 doubles, 2 HRs & 15 RBIs & a .478 on base %.

On May 23rd, the Mets chose to bring up the hot minor league hitter when Lucas Duda went on the DL. The Mets already had David Wright struggling with back issues & Wilmer Flores on the DL as well.

So with the Mets desperately needed a third baseman and with a depleted minor league system, Kelly got the call up.

Kelly debuted with the Mets wearing #56, on May 24th, 2016 in a 7-4 loss to the Washington Nationals. That day he struck out three times against Steven Strasburg who was born on the same day as Kelly.

On May 30th he got his first hit, it came off  The Chicago White Sox Nate Jones in a 1-0 Mets win.

 On June 8th, he hit his first career HR, at two run game tying shot coming in a 6-5 Mets win over the Pirates in Pittsburgh.


Kelly wasn't the answer at third base, after ten games he was batting just .174 with  one HR & two RBIs. He was sent back down to Las Vegas on June 10th when the Mets re-acquired Kelly Johnson. He did return a week later 7 went hitless in four games 0-4 as a pinch hitter. The team would soon reunite with Jose Reyes, who primarily became the main third baseman.

Kelly was back in Las Vegas until August 6th, when he got called back up. He saw action in nine games getting his average to .250 while driving in four runs. His up & down year continued as he went back to Vegas until getting a September call up. He got just two hits in ten at bats & saw some defensive action.

On the season he batted .241 with 1 HR & 7 RBIs in 39 games. He played ten games at third base & ten in the out field with two games at second & one at first base.

2016 Wild Card Game: Kelly got a pinch hit single in the 8th inning of the Wild Card loss to the San Francisco Giants. It was one of just four Mets hits.

In April he was placed on waiver, picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays & then a week later was purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies.

He would play 69 games for the Phillies at second base (14 games) third base (4 games) & all outfield spots (11 games). He batted .193 with 2 HRs & 14 RBIs in 69 games.