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Kelley to Tacoma sounds strange by itself.
But, the club is trying to hold onto K-Tex, because he's a Rule5 guy, (that they obviously think will come around).  Another concern is who has option -- that they can demote without risk of losing.
But, the up side of Kelley to Tacoma would be to potentially experiment with turning him into an SP.  The Doc is *REAL* high on the concept.  Well, there is an industry-wide aversion to drastically increasing innings for pitchers.  Since Kelley hasn't thrown big innings yet, (being a reliever), a trip to Tacoma could well be a chance to (at some point), transition him into a starting role, (which may or may not happen immediately on getting to Tacoma).
The concept would be to add 30 or 40 innings to Kelley's work load in 2010 -- and see how he adjusts to the SP role, (some guys lose their control when only pitching live every 5th day). 
For 2011, the club is going to be looking hard at what to do in regards to Bedard and Lee.  They could lose one or both.  If they both pitch gangbusters this season, the odds of getting BOTH back is probably zero - (and even if successful would make their budget for improving the offense about a buck fifty).
If Kelley is truly the guy optioned to AAA, my guess would be this is the club weighing the FUTURE value of Kelley (in whatever role) as more critical than immediate value from Kelley.  Honestly, with Aardsma, League and Lowe making a VERY solid 7/8/9 trio, Kelley's value to the Ms isn't 'hyper-critical' in general terms, (though the close game nature of the club construction mitigates that analysis somewhat).
My instinct would suggest that the Doc's take on Kelley might be right - and Kelley to Tacoma is long-term planning with RRS being moved to the long guy in the pen.  Essentially, they might be planning to flip RRS/Kelley in regard to SP/RP roles.