Cody Snavely
As the 2025 Major League Baseball offseason continues to move along with pitchers and catchers set to report next month, many Dodgers fans wonder what will happen with fan-favorite right-handed relief pitcher Joe Kelly, who is still a free agent.
Well, in the latest interview on the Bleed Los Podcast, we finally have some clarity about what is in store for the upcoming 2025 regular season.
When Bleed Los correspondent Alysha Del Valle asked about his offseason and his plans for next season, Kelly stated that he intends to play next season and is hopeful that it will be with the Dodgers.
Once I’m healthy, it’s kind of like Clayton’s deal. You know, there’s only one spot to come back to. So it’s either that or if my body doesn’t heal as well as it wants to, then you never know, we’ll see.
It is not the first time that Kelly has stated his intentions to continue playing, as earlier in the offseason, he did in an interview with Rob Bradford of Baseball Isn’t Boring.
Kelly, 36, is coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season in which the hard-throwing righty was limited to thirty-five games and thirty-two innings for the Dodgers this season due to recurring shoulder problems, most prominently a right posterior strain that put him on the injured list for about 2.5 months.
Kelly has now visited the injured list on ten separate occasions over the last five seasons due to a variety of arm-related, such as shoulder and elbow inflammation, nerve problems in his bicep issues, and other maladies like a groin strain or a hamstring strain.
The longest of these injured list stints was this season’s trip to the 60-day injured list for the shoulder strain, but the sheer number of knocks clearly makes durability a big concern for Kelly as he heads into his age-37 season.
Due to the injuries, Kelly has been a widely inconsistent arm in the Dodgers and White Sox bullpen since the 2020 season. The right-hander has posted a 4.21 ERA over 162.1 innings but an elite 29.4% strikeout rate and an 11.2% walk rate.
A reunion with Los Angeles could make sense for Kelly if he takes the Daniel Hudson contract route. Last offseason, the Dodgers re-signed Hudson to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training along with an opt-out clause if the veteran righty did not make the Opening Day 26-man roster.
A deal for Kelly along those lines could make sense for both parties, but with the Dodgers still looking to add more big fish in the free-agent market (Tanner Scott), any reunion with Kelly will be put on hold until February.
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