There are four ways 23-year-old Antwone Kelly can talk about baseball, and at least five ways he can throw it.
Baseball. Papiamento is his best language, his native tongue. Born in Oranjestad, Aruba, as the fourth youngest of five kids, Kelly grew up speaking the country’s official language in his home. Honkbal. Dutch came next. Once his second-best mode of communication, as Dutch was used heavily in the classroom, Kelly admits he barely uses it these days and it has fallen to last place. Béisbol. Spanish, which has overtaken Dutch in Kelly’s toolkit, trails Papiamento. He learned Spanish in school but sharpened it further in his first year with the Pirates organization, playing in the Dominican Summer League for the DSL Pirates Black in 2021. Kelly uses Spanish daily in the dugout, clubhouse, bullpen and on the mound. In 20 of his 30 games this season, backstops of Hispanic heritage have been behind the dish for Kelly: Rafael Flores Jr. (Mexican), Endy Rodríguez (Dominican) and Shawn Ross (Puerto Rican). Baseball. (Again.) English came by itself, Kelly added, from hearing it everywhere growing up.
Kelly can talk about baseball all he wants, but it is best if the right-hander shows it to you. You might not be able to see it, though. Kelly’s been working on the pitch since he was three years old — both the football pitch and his baseball arsenal, as he split his childhood between kicking the ball in soccer and hurling it on the diamond. While Kelly enjoyed both sports, it was baseball that he fell in love with. He grew up going to the field with his family, watching his dad coach and his mom play softball. At nine years old, Kelly decided to leave soccer behind and pursue baseball. He used to be a shortstop, but chose pitching for a simple reason.
“I always had a good arm,” Kelly said. “I liked pitching because I can throw hard.”
And throw hard, he does. On January 15, 2021, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed 18-year-old Antwone Kelly. Two years into his professional career, Kelly got an opportunity most young ballplayers do not: to travel more than 8,000 miles from the Florida Complex League to Taichung, Taiwan, to play in front of almost 20,000 fans in the 2023 World Baseball Classic for Team Netherlands.
“That was the first time I had big league treatment,” Kelly said. “[It’s] different: they carry your bag, the food’s good, cameras everywhere. I think that was a good thing for my career when I was young, to see that, how things are, and I liked it. That made me push harder to get to where I want to be.”
In front of the biggest crowd of his life up to that point and an ocean away from his hometown, Kelly threw a 10-pitch, perfect inning against Chinese Taipei in his global debut. It was his first taste of the big leagues before even hitting the majors. Although Kelly was the youngest pitcher on the Netherlands staff, excitement triumphed over any nerves.
“Ah, just go and pitch, have fun,” Kelly said with a smile, recalling his mindset.
Three years later, the righty returned to represent his country in the 2026 Classic. This time, he was not the youngest on the pitching staff; Kelly was the ace.
“It was me with younger pitchers; I had to show what I have, so those young pitchers can also look up to me and [I can] be an example,” Kelly said. “[There was pressure] at first, but at the same time, I’m young too, so I had to enjoy it.”
One of the young pitchers making his Classic debut was Kelly’s 18-year-old brother, Jaitoine. Representing Aruba on the biggest stage, together, was a dream come true for the older brother.
Following the WBC, Antwone Kelly opened his 2026 season in Indianapolis with his first Triple-A outing on March 29. ‘Throwing hard’ seems to be just as fun for the right-hander as it was when he took the bump in Aruba: on May 22, Kelly recorded 101.3 MPH on the radar. It is the eighth-fastest pitch thrown by an Indians pitcher since tracking began, trailing marks set by just Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler.
Kelly kept his foot on the gas. On June 12, 2026, he made his major league debut at PNC Park against the Miami Marlins. As soon as his first pitch in the big leagues left his fingers at 100.0 MPH, Kelly became just the seventh Aruban-born player to appear in the majors. He is currently in his fifth stint with Pittsburgh, which has called on Kelly for bullpen help throughout the season as needed. As tough as he is on his opponents, the young prospect is tough on himself. It’s been a year of ups and downs, and Kelly has committed to learning from, and enjoying, it all.
“It’s been a crazy year… a roller coaster,” Kelly said. “Everything was new to me, just getting to come here, Triple-A, and getting to be around big-league players… Pitching-wise, not my best year, but I think it was a learning year. So it wasn’t a year that I lost, it’s just a learning year.
“Triple-A, big leagues — the same thing is, you’re playing baseball,” Kelly continued. “It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of 50,000 people or 10,000 people. Just go there and do your job and have the team win.”
Bouncing between his starter role with the Indians and pitching in relief for the Pirates has been an adjustment for Kelly, but he is grateful for the opportunities and has shined in many of them. On April 29 with Indianapolis, Kelly threw his second career complete game in the first contest of a 7.0-inning doubleheader on the road at Memphis. On May 22, he matched his career high in single-game strikeouts, punching out nine Toledo batters across 5.2 frames. But the righty might like throwing hard with Pittsburgh even more. In his fourth MLB appearance on Aug. 22 at Los Angeles (NL), Kelly hurled a 102.5 MPH fastball at the two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani for a called strike. It remains the fastest pitch thrown by a Pirate in 2026, beating out a blazing staff loaded with Skenes, Chandler, Jared Jones, Mason Montgomery and fellow rookie Wilber Dotel.
It has been a year of firsts for Kelly. The chapters of his story have been filled with feats and new experiences, but blank pages await and the ink is far from drying. He has stepped up in more ways than one: Kelly became the Netherlands’ ace, joined the Triple-A club and made his major league debut all in the span of four months. The 23-year-old refuses to shy away from the big moments, driven by his love for baseball. Wherever he is, the kid from Aruba is just enjoying ball and throwing it hard.