Joe Kelly’s latest comments claim mutual interest in Dodgers return

Can the Los Angeles Dodgers find room for Joe Kelly in their bullpen?

Hmm, let us check … yup, still mostly empty back there, especially without Kenley Jansen under contract.

Though bringing Kelly back would amount to something between another bounce-back attempt and a known quantity, the Dodgers should still be considering the move, as long as the price is right.

And it should be, considering Kelly seemed to think in a confident radio appearance this week that everything would work out in Hollywood — and quite quickly, as soon as the lockout is lifted.

Speaking to host David Vassegh on 570 LA Sports, Kelly made it quite clear he’d like to re-sign in LA, and spoke of mutual interest.

Dodgers’ Joe Kelly wants to re-sign in Los Angeles

According to Kelly:

"“As with the whole lockout, once it’s over… teams are going to be signing. The signing period’s going to be like basketball. People are going to be signing at 4:00 in the morning. But obviously, I want to come back and be a Dodger — and the interest is mutual, so we’ve got to make something happen.”"

In printing this quote, MLB Trade Rumors speculated that the interest from the Dodgers’ end to which Kelly speaks may have been referring to what transpired before the lockout, considering (in theory) these two sides have been banned from speaking.

Therefore, it’s possible that Kelly has assessed the landscape and decided he’d like to return to the Dodgers, but that the Dodgers could’ve changed their tune in silence and secrecy between November and the present day. We won’t know the answer there until the CBT threshold hits a midpoint and we can end this bitter battle.

Kelly’s 2021 — prior to his ill-timed injury mid-start in the NLCS — was sterling, featuring a 2.86 ERA, uncharacteristically low 0.977 WHIP, and 1.00 Mariachi Suits.

Ideally, the Dodgers and Kelly can work something out — so long as they keep the offseason’s highest-profile free agent out of the locker room.

You want to talk about something that might’ve fouled up the “mutual interest” the two sides discovered back in November?

Carlos Correa rumors might just be that special sauce.

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