Tigers fans cannot believe what former trade piece is doing with Cubs in 2025

With little hope of making the postseason by last year's trade deadline, the Tigers dealt all of their veteran players with the exception of Kenta Maeda. Jack Flaherty went to the Dodgers, Mark Canha went to the Giants, and Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly went to the Rangers. Given the unexpected success the Tigers experienced without them in August and September, and the fact that Detroit got Flaherty back in the offseason, it was hard for fans to harp on any of those moves.

Kelly's deal paved the way for then-No. 14 prospect Dillon Dingler to take over in the co-catcher role with Jake Rogers. Dingler got off to a slow start in the majors last year, but he's exceeding expectations so far this year, batting .301 with a .804 OPS and putting up elite defensive numbers behind the plate.

Kelly, though, has been unreal with the Cubs, who he signed a two-year deal with after leaving the Rangers in the offseason. He was signed as a backup to former Cubs top prospect Miguel Amaya but has been outshining Amaya in every possible way. Kelly's batting .361 with a 1.320 OPS (.500 OBP, .820 slugging) through his first 20 games. He has eight homers, 23 RBI, 10 more walks than strikeouts, and he hit for the cycle in his third game as a Cub.

Former Tigers catcher Carson Kelly is putting up unreal numbers with the Cubs

The Tigers have already gotten some use of out one of the trade pieces that came from Texas in exchange for Kelly; reliever Tyler Owens pitched two scoreless innings in his major league debut last week before being sent back to Triple-A when Beau Brieske came off of the IL.

There was no way for the Tigers to know that Kelly had this in him, and there didn't seem to be any hard feelings when he was dealt to Texas. The Rangers definitely didn't take him because they thought he might be capable of this, and the Cubs definitely didn't sign him for that either. Kelly's been a solid backup catcher throughout most of his career but never touched this level of production in his last nine years in the majors.

The Cubs have been playing stunningly good baseball and currently rule the NL Central comfortably, and Kelly's been a huge part of that. There's no reason to feel anything other than happy for the guy, even if Tigers fans kind of wish he could've accmomplished a semblance of this in Detroit.