“Great kid,” Molina said. “He wants to learn. I’m here for him. Any way I can help him, I will. Great teammate. Happy for him. Hopefully, next year he comes up ready to go.”

Those highest up in the organization have also joined the Kelly chorus.

“He did everything you would want him to do this year,” said general manager John Mozeliak. “Clearly, if we’re sitting here a year ago, we were talking about question marks with his bat, what kind of steps would he take. You look back at the year he had at Double-A and Triple-A and it went about as seamlessly as possible.”

The next step is Arizona Fall League, which begins games next week. Kelly heads there having had a month-long master’s class in St. Louis, the result of his promotion from Class AAA during September roster expansion.