The Los Angeles Dodgers reinstated Joe Kelly from the 60-day injured list and added him to their active roster as they begin the second half of the season.
Kelly had been out since May 6 with a right posterior shoulder strain that forced him to miss more than two months. The right-hander was expected to return after the All-Star break, and everything went well in his rehab stints with the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and Triple-A Oklahoma City Baseball Club.
Kelly had some mixed results on his rehab outings, but the main thing is he came out of them feeling good and without any lingering issues.
He began his rehab with two scoreless innings for the Quakes, allowing two hits, striking out one and walking one before moving on to Triple-A. With OKC, Kelly appeared in three games, pitching 1.2 innings while allowing four runs on one hit with five walks and two strikeouts.
Overall on the season, Kelly has thrown 13.1 innings for the Dodgers, posting a 4.73 ERA, but his underlying numbers suggest he has been better.
Kelly holds a 2.64 FIP, 3.77 expected ERA, and he’s struck out 14 hitters in 13.1 innings. His strikeout rate of 24.1% is about in line with where he’s been as a releiver in his career (26.8%), and he dropped his walk rate by about 2.5%.
Mainly, his ERA has been inflated due to his early-season blowup where he allowed five runs (four earned) on March 30 and another run the following day. Since those games, he allowed just two runs in 12 games, and he was scoreless in 11 of them.
Dodgers roster moves for Joe Kelly
During the break, the Dodgers optioned Michael Petersen to Oklahoma City and outrighted Jose Hernandez off their 40-man roster while sending him to the Arizona Complex League Dodgers.
Those moves cleared room for the Dodgers on both their 26- and 40-man rosters for Kelly, so no corresponding moves were needed today.
Petersen was last recalled on July 9 in place of Tyler Glasnow when he was put on the 15-day IL. Overall this season, Petersen has appeared in nine games for the Dodgers, pitching 12 innings with a 4.50 ERA and 1.33 WHIP with eight strikeouts.
Hernandez was acquired by the Dodgers for cash considerations on June 13, but he did not appear at the Major League level.
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