{"id":93587,"date":"2025-01-08T20:48:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T01:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=93587"},"modified":"2025-01-08T20:48:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T01:48:26","slug":"joe-kelly-wants-remain-dodgers-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/08\/joe-kelly-wants-remain-dodgers-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Kelly Says He Wants to Either Play in LA or Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Right-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=kellyjo05,kelly-008joe,kellyjo04,kellyjo03&amp;search=Joe+Kelly&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Kelly<\/a> wants to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025 if he is healthy, otherwise he will probably retire. The fireballer is currently rehabbing from a shoulder injury. The three-time World Series champion told Alysha Del Valle of Bleed Los Podcast that he&#8217;s &#8220;&#8230;working on his physical therapy process&#8230;kinda like what Clayton [Kershaw]&#8217;s doing.&#8221; Kelly elaborated further saying, &#8220;When the time is right,&#8221; he&#8217;ll make a decision along with his family. The recovery is taking longer than anyone would like, but Kelly said, &#8220;You can&#8217;t force the healing process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;There is only one spot we will come back to&#8221;<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Dodgers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Dodgers<\/a> free agent Joe Kelly tells <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alyshadelvalle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@alyshadelvalle<\/a> on the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleedLosPodcast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BleedLosPodcast<\/a> his intentions to play in LA in 2025<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBisntBoring?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BBisntBoring<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bradfo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@bradfo<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SnavelyCody6?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SnavelyCody6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>WATCH FULL INTERVIEW:<a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/T53af5NRw0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/T53af5NRw0<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5KY2jAxXGH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/5KY2jAxXGH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DodgersBeat (@DodgersBeat) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DodgersBeat\/status\/1876810221386866728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Joe Kelly Wants to Either Remain a Dodger or Retire<\/h2>\n<h3>Staying with the Dodgers?<\/h3>\n<p>Asked if he wanted to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/08\/four-possible-fits-bolster-dodgers-bullpen\/\" target=\"_self\">stay in LA<\/a>, Kelly responded, &#8220;Oh yeah, of course. I would blame it on the shoulder if I had to play anywhere else,&#8230; I wouldn&#8217;t play&#8230; There&#8217;s only one spot we&#8217;ll come back to&#8230;if I&#8217;m healthy.&#8221; It sounds, as of now, that both Kelly and the Dodgers are forced to take a wait-and-see approach that may extend into spring training if the reliever&#8217;s timeline is similar to Kershaw&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<h3>Injury-Plagued Season<\/h3>\n<p>Kelly&#8217;s 2024 campaign was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/25\/reinforcements-coming-dodgers-world-series-roster\/\" target=\"_self\">interrupted by injuries<\/a>. He spent significant time on the injured list and was unable to contribute to the Dodgers&#8217; 2024 World Series victory in large part because of a cranky shoulder. &#8220;The season didn&#8217;t end the way I wanted it to,&#8221; Kelly said. His statistics might be a reflection of playing hurt. In limited time last season, Kelly had a 1-1 record, a 4.78 ERA with 35 strikeouts and 16 walks in 32 innings.<\/p>\n<h3>Replacements Needed<\/h3>\n<p>Los Angeles has re-signed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/treinbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Treinen<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/01\/05\/los-angeles-dodgers-re-sign-blake-treinen\/\" target=\"_self\">a two-year deal.<\/a> However, they will have to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hudsoda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-08_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Hudson<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/31\/dodgers-daniel-hudson-retires-world-series\/\" target=\"_self\">announced his retirement<\/a> the night the Dodgers won the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>It is very clear that the Dodgers want to run it back in 2025. It is also very clear that Joe Kelly wants to be a part of that run if he can. When asked if there&#8217;s a chance he&#8217;ll play next season, Kelly responded, &#8220;There&#8217;s always a chance.&#8221; Dodgers fans will have to wait and see how much of a chance Kelly&#8217;s return has.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right-handed reliever Joe Kelly wants to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025 if he is healthy, otherwise he will probably retire. The fireballer is currently rehabbing from a shoulder injury. The three-time World Series champion told Alysha Del Valle of Bleed Los Podcast that he&#8217;s &#8220;&#8230;working on his physical therapy process&#8230;kinda like what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":93600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[991,830,903],"class_list":["post-93587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-blake-treinen","tag-daniel-hudson","tag-joe-kelly"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93602,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93587\/revisions\/93602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}