Dodgers News: LA Brings Back Joe Kelly, Adds Lance Lynn in Blockbuster Trade
The Dodgers are going all in this trade deadline in terms of making moves. On Friday, Ken Rosenthal reported that the team was acquiring former All-Star pitcher Lance Lynn and former fan favorite reliever Joe Kelly from the White Sox. The return package is not yet known.
Both players are having down years, so the Dodgers are continuing to make marginal upgrades as they try to find reclamation projects in this sellers market.
Kelly has a 4.97 ERA this season in 29 innings pitched. Lynn, on the other hand, has an MLB-worst 6.47 ERA this season with an also MLB-worst 28 home runs allowed.
On the bright side, as Doug McKain of DodgersNation.com points out, Lynn has an xERA of 4.82, while Kelly has an xERA of 3.23. So, there's definitely a little bit of unluckiness there, and maybe the Dodgers can unlock what's been missing to get them back to being elite players.
The Dodgers are obviously known for turning players around, and both players have been great at their peaks.
For Lynn, he's a two-time All-Star, most recently in 2021. That year, he had a 2.69 ERA and finished third in AL Cy Young voting.
So, Lynn is just two years removed from a dominant season, and if anyone can help bring that back out of him, hopefully, it's Mark Prior and the Dodgers pitching coaches.
And at the very least, Lynn will eat innings, as he's already thrown 119.2 innings this year, which would be by far the most out of all LA pitchers (Kershaw has thrown 95.1).
As for Kelly, his most recent dominant year was also 2021, which was also his last year in LA. The 12-year veteran had a 2.86 ERA that season, and an even better 1.80 ERA in LA's 2020 World Series championship season.
He's for sure an upgrade over the likes of Phil Bickford, and the Dodgers will work to get him back to being the player he was in 2021.
The Dodgers are making it clear that they're going to be active this deadline, but also be smart. Let's hope they can hit on some of these reclamation, buy-low projects.
