July 1st, 2021 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Suffice to say, when Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman signed (then) 31-year-old right-hander Joe Kelly to a three-year / $25 million free-agent contract on December 21, 2018 (with a club option for 2022 or a $4 million buyout), it was not warmly received by Dodger fans. In fact, many Dodger fans were furious that Friedman would dare sign a member of the Red Sox team that had cheated them out of the 2018 World Series title just two months earlier; granted, not to the level of the Houston Astros in 2017, but still…
Once their anger subsided, the Anaheim, CA native, who had been selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the third round of the 2009 MLB MLB Draft out of UC Riverside, quickly became somewhat of a fan-favorite, due in no small part to his sharp wit and remarkable sense of humor; especially after his wife Ashley posted a home video of him on social media of him throwing a baseball through a bedroom window while working on his change-up in his backyard during the COVID-19-restricted 2020 off-season:
(Video capture courtesy of Ashley Kelly – Click on image to view video)
But what really endeared Kelly with Dodger fans was when he made his now-famous pouty face after he (allegedly) intentionally threw at Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa on July 28, 2020, earning the Dodgers right-hander a hefty fine and a 10-game suspension (which was reduced to five on appeal).
(Photo credit – Bob Levey)
After his excellent performance in his 12 games with the Dodgers during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Kelly fell on hard times to begin the 2021 season, posting an un-Kelly-like 9.00 ERA with only five strikeouts during the month of May, causing many Dodger fans to cringe every time he emerged from the bullpen gate.
But during the month of June, Kelly ‘found it’ (as they say), allowing only one earned run while striking out 12, to lower his season ERA to a more respectable 4.00. It also caused Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to affectionately begin calling him “Joseph.”
“Joseph’s been great. He’s been very good for quite some time, and you just see the confidence now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Kelly’s scoreless/hitless 1.1 innings of work on Tuesday night against the NL West first-place San Francisco Giants. “It’s fastball, it’s sitting at a hundred, it’s commanded, it’s 87 to 89 mile an hour curveball which you don’t see those in the big leagues, and it’s a change-up that’s on-plate that’s late with depth. He’s pitching as well as I can remember.”
Welcome back, Joseph!
Play Ball!
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