Los Angeles Dodgers: Grading every significant move of the offseason
By Jason Reed
1. Signing Joe Kelly to a three-year, $25 million contract: C
Less than two months after winning the World Series in Dodger Stadium as a member of the Boston Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly signed a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This deal seemed like an easy one for Kelly to make. Kelly is now coming to his hometown team to play in his backyard consistently for the first time in his career and is still going to be contending for World Series gold. Making $25 million as a reliever definitely helps the decision.
It is the money that the Dodgers gave Kelly that is making this deal somewhat hard to completely get around. Three years and $25 million is not a cheap contract for a reliever. If the Dodgers want to keep Kelly around for four years, the team will have to pay him $12 million in 2022.
This was just a pretty penny for a team that usually spends wisely to spend on a reliever. It seemingly made it clear right off the bat that the Dodgers would not be in play for the superstars of the offseason since the team was willing to give up over $8 million a year to a setup guy.
If Kelly can pitch like he did in the postseason then it will be worth it for the Dodgers. Los Angeles desperately needed a hard-throwing arm to close the gap to Kenley Jansen; Pedro Baez really was the only option.
Until I see those results I cannot fully get behind signing a guy with a 4.34 ERA the last five years to a $25 million deal.