C · 2026
Carson Kelly
- Age
- 32
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 1"
- Weight
- 212 lb
- Number
- #15
- Born
- July 14, 1994 in Chicago, IL, USA
- MLB debut
- September 5, 2016
- Drafted
- 2012, round 2
- High school
- Westview
- Salary, 2026
- $5M
- dbWAR
- 5.8 4 season(s)
- PA
- 311
- AVG
- .265
- OBP
- .350
- SLG
- .382
- wRC+
- 109 100 = avg
Carson Kelly is a catcher for the Chicago Cubs. In 2026 he hit 7 home runs and knocked in 42 RBIs, notching 73 hits across 311 plate appearances in 84 games. His batting average was .265, 8.9% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .350 clip and slugged .382, for an OPS of .732, 1.8% higher than the league mark of .719 — 8th of 13 on his team, and 160th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 87.3 mph off the bat, hit 36.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 80.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 109 wRC+ puts his offence 9% above average. That comes to 1.8 dbWAR — +3.4 runs with the bat, -0.9 on the bases, +5.3 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +18.1 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 109 | 94 | 32 | 5 | 15 | 18 | .340 | .431 | .564 | .433 | 16.5% |
| vs RHP | 202 | 181 | 41 | 2 | 18 | 34 | .227 | .307 | .287 | .277 | 16.8% |
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHB | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0.0% |
| vs RHB | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 | 2.000 | 1.007 | 0.0% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 223 batted balls…
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Pitch sequencing
What Carson Kelly throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.
Select a count to see exactly what Carson Kelly throws in it.
Pitch arsenal
What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 84 | 311 | 73 | 7 | 42 | 0 | 33 | 52 | .265 | .350 | .382 | .116 | .306 | 10.6% | 16.7% | .331 | +3.4 | 109 | 1.8 | |
| 2025 | 109 | 421 | 92 | 17 | 50 | 2 | 45 | 80 | .249 | .333 | .428 | .179 | .272 | 10.7% | 19.0% | .334 | +6.6 | 114 | 2.9 | |
| 2024 | 85 | 313 | 67 | 9 | 37 | 0 | 25 | 55 | .238 | .313 | .374 | .135 | .266 | 8.0% | 17.6% | .306 | -1.4 | 96 | 1.4 |
Pitching
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18.00 | 29.09 | 2.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 431 | 697 | -0.3 | — |
Head to head
Put Carson Kelly beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.