Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly has been traded twice during his MLB career, one time to the Boston Red Sox and another to Los Angeles.
The only difference: one of the trades he knew was coming, while the other was a complete shock. The trade that caught him off guard was the one to the Red Sox in 2014.
“I had the best of both worlds of being notified about one that most likely was gonna happen and then the other one, completely blindsided,” Kelly told the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “Manager didn’t know, nobody knew.”
The way Kelly found out was through Twitter and MLB Network while he was sitting in the clubhouse, but he did hear later on from his team, the St. Louis Cardinals, that he was being sent to Boston.
“Fifteen minutes later I got called into the office and I said, ‘I already know, I saw,'” Kelly said.
While the relief pitcher was “shell shocked” to be traded, he was ready to go play for the Red Sox. Kelly played five seasons in Boston and won a World Series with the team in 2018.
The right-hander was 26 years old when he was traded and he had to learn a new team after starting his career with the Cardinals.
“It’s a learning process,” Kelly said. “You don’t really feel comfortable until the next season, like not even in spring training because you’re still meeting new people. Minor league coaches, minor league strength and conditioning, minor league training staff, prospects, 40-man guys, non-roster invitees. So it’s still all new. I felt comfortable in my second spring training obviously but even though you play two months with the big-league club, you don’t know what spring training is like.”
In his first full season with the Red Sox in 2015, Kelly pitched 134 1/3 innings and finished the season with a 4.82 ERA. His best year was in 2017 despite dealing with an injury during the season due to a hamstring strain. He had a 2.79 ERA with 52 strikeouts through 58 innings.
