Dodgers: Joe Kelly debated sitting out 2020 season

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly explains why he almost decided to sit out the 2020 season.

After commissioner Rob Manfred implemented a 60-game schedule for the 2020 season and the players signed off on health and safety protocols, the Los Angeles Dodgers will report to Spring Training 2.0 on July 1.

However, one player wasn’t so sure he would be playing this season.

Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly and his wife Ashley recently added twins to their family, a situation that caused Kelly to think about whether it was worth taking on the risk of playing baseball amid a global pandemic.

“I thought about it,” Kelly said on the Bradfo Sho podcast this week. “My wife has joked about it, but I know she was dead-ass serious. ‘Don’t even play.’ The only reason I would play is my teammates. I feel morally right all the way up until that point until someone on my team is like, ‘Bro, I’m playing, just play. You need to play. Honor your contract. Play. We’re trying to win.’ That’s the only thing that would be holding me back. Everything else, I would be fine with not playing.”

Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly felt compelled to play in thinking about his teammates.

Kelly said he was faced with a similar situation in middle school when he quit baseball because he was “worn out” but his friends ultimately pulled him back to the game. When considering sitting out the 2020 season, the right-hander said he couldn’t imagine letting down his teammates.

“I would be fine saying, ‘I’m not playing this year. I’m not risking it,’” Kelly said. “You’ve got twins. You’ve got a 4-year-old. Who knows what the coronavirus entails in 50 years, what it will do to you. No one knows. So I could easily have been like, ‘I’m doing what is right for my family.’ But then I would get a text from DP (David Price) or Mookie (Betts) or any one of my teammates, any one of my fellow pitchers, any one of my fellow hitters and then I would feel bad. That’s the shitty part about it. That was the only thing I probably couldn’t live with.”

Joe Kelly isn’t the only Dodgers player with family concerns to consider in returning to play. Teammate AJ Pollock’s wife recently gave birth to their daughter at only 24 weeks. The newborn weighed only 1.6 pounds, but has been recovering well over the past several weeks, based on recent public statements made by Pollock.

The Dodgers outfielder has been talking to doctors to ensure he doesn’t put his daughter at risk by playing this season.

“I don’t want to put her at risk,” Pollock said. “If there’s any chance of putting her at risk, it gets to be a difficult decision. [The doctors] have been pretty reassuring, and I don’t anticipate there being an issue.”

Every player has their own factors to consider in deciding whether to play. Closer Kenley Jansen has had heart issues in the past. Manager Dave Roberts was diagnosed for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010. While both could be at higher risk to severe illness to the virus, Roberts told the Los Angeles Times that he feels safe enough to return to work.

“I asked [the doctor] if I were to go back, does that put me in any different [risk] category, and he said absolutely not,” Roberts told the Los Angeles Times in May. “He didn’t really give me any details, and I didn’t really ask.”

Dodgers: Who faces health concerns in returning to play amid coronavirus?

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and closer Kenley Jansen are two examples who need to consider their health history before returning to play.

It will be a strange baseball season for a variety of on-field factors that will be different than a traditional campaign. But it is also a season where players face real risk to their health and the health of their families. Hopefully everyone stays safe.