KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Kansas City T-Bones announced that they’ve re-signed pitchers Jared Messer and Josh Tols to contracts for the 2016 season. 

Messer, who is a 6-foot and 180-pound right-hander from Massillon, Ohio, is returning for his third season in a T-Bones’ uniform. Messer went 3-0 with one save and a 3.26 ERA in 35 appearances (two starts, with one complete game) in 2015. In 60 2/3 innings, he struck out 41 and walked 14. In two professional seasons, Messer is 8-3 with a 4.12 ERA in 68 games. He’ll enter the 2016 season with 96 career strikeouts and 29 walks. The Washington Nationals picked Messer in the 38th round of the 2012 June Amateur Draft, but he didn’t sign, opting to finish his collegiate career at Malone University in Canton, Ohio.

Tols is a 5-foot-7 and 175-pound left-hander from Adelaide, South Australia. In 2015 with Kansas City, Tols went 2-0 with a 4.55 ERA in 29 appearances (two starts). He struck out 49 and walked 26 in 55 1/3 innings. Tols is a former pitcher at nearby Rockhurst University, where he had eight complete games in 10 starts and two shutouts during his senior year of 2014. He struck out a Great Lakes Valley Conference-best 71 batters that season.

The T-Bones open the 2016 regular season at home on May 19 against Texas.