Carson Kelly Reflects on Being a D-backs Player and Talks about Tigers

The former key player acquired in the Paul Goldschmidt trade, Carson Kelly, is back in Arizona playing at Chase Field. The only difference from the many times he played there before is that this is the first time he will visit Chase Field as a visiting player. He's a member of the Detroit Tigers, the club that he signed with following his Designation for Assignment last August after being cut by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Kelly was a member of the D-backs for five years and five seasons. While there, he served quite often, when healthy, as the team's franchise catcher. Unfortunately for the team and him, that health just didn't last as various flukey injuries would rob him of key playing time.

Still, Kelly did his best to represent the Arizona Diamondbacks in the best way he could and maintain a great relationship with the fans who cheered him on numerous times. When asked Saturday if there was anything he would like to say to the many fans who rooted for him, Kelly said "I'm just grateful for everything they've given me over the last 5 years and you know it was great to play in front of them and be a Diamondback and just grateful and thankful for all the support over the ups and down.

Kelly spoke about how different it is to be at Chase Field as a member of a visiting team. "Weird, it's a little weird being on the other side and you know so used to how everything's organized over there and like the hallways and things like that, come over here, it's a little different."

"Everything's flip, you know, but it's crazy to see the guys and a lot of the guys that I played with the last couple years, so it's cool to reconnect with them. "

Before the game on Saturday, Manager Torey Lovullo and the D-backs presented Carson Kelly and former D-backs reliever Andrew Chafin with their NL Champions rings, hence the feature picture.

When asked about how it feels to get a Championship Ring, even for the NL, he said "It's special, you know, anytime you get an opportunity to play on a team that gets into the playoffs and then make a deep run and you know it's special and you know, at the end of the day like it's going to be something that I'll have forever."

The Tigers pitching staff has vastly improved this year from the last couple of years. Former D-backs Manager and former MLB catcher and current Detroit Tigers Manager AJ Hinch has credited a lot of the improvement with Kelly's leading and catching. The feeling between Kelly and Hinch is mutual.

"AJ's a great person, great manager and you know we have a lot of conversations during games off the field... you can see it's a great baseball mind...I continue to learn things from him and it's been fun being on his team."

They relate to each other quite well as catchers. Kelly is soaking up as much knowledge and information as he can from Hinch, especially when they talk about "gameplay and what will we do in certain situations, how would we approach this? "

Of course, fresh off Tarik Skubal's complete domination of the D-backs and with how great the Tigers' pitching has been, Kelly couldn't stop from talking about the pitching staff.

"We've got a lot of great arms, young arms, veteran arms guys, the guys that have a plan and they know what they need to do and good stuff as well. There's a combination of that and knowing and having the good stuff, but then also being able to go apply it for certain situations...it's a great staff. A lot of great talent, you know it's been fun to be a part of. "

On the season, Carson Kelly has been splitting time behind the plate with Jake Rogers. In his 27 games, Kelly has hit .232/.329/.304/ .633 OPS with two doubles, a homer, and nine RBI.

He had the clutch hit that tied the game for the Tigers last night against Zac Gallen that changed the course of the ballgame. That was particularly ironic as the two are good friends and former room mates and battery mates. Good luck to Carson Kelly for the rest of the season.