When reliever Joe Kelly re-signed with the Dodgers earlier this month, fans were all left wondering the same thing: How does this impact the team’s pursuit of Shohei Ohtani?
No, the one-year, $8 million deal Kelly reportedly received wouldn’t leave the team scrambling to put together the cash to pay Ohtani. The “issue” was that Kelly had worn the same jersey number with the Dodgers (17) that Ohtani had worn with the Angels. Would Kelly be stupid enough to hold onto his jersey number and risk harming the Dodgers’ pursuit of Ohtani? Of course not. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the Dodgers phoned Kelly to ask if he’d be willing to change numbers and the pitcher said it wouldn’t be an issue.
Now that the Dodgers have officially signed Ohtani, the only question left to answer is what number Kelly will wear on his back next season. Kelly and his wife, Ashley, found a hilarious way to announce what his new number would be. Ashley posted a video on Instagram on Monday featuring her throwing out all of Kelly’s old No. 17 merch.
So what number will Kelly wear this season? It’ll be 99.
Kelly wore 58 when he broke into the majors with the Cardinals, then 56 with Red Sox. When he first signed with the Dodgers before the 2019 season, he switched to No. 17, a number he kept when he signed with the White Sox in ’22. Chicago traded him back to Los Angeles in July and he wore 17 again at the end of last season.
Kelly will be third player in Dodgers history to wear No. 99, joining Manny Ramírez and Hyun Jin Ryu.
