When it first became clear that this year’s baseball season was going to be different, I had the same reaction I’m guessing many of you had. I, like you, became immediately disappointed about the important thing: that Joe Kelly was losing what at the time looked to be at least a month or two from the prime of his career. I, like you, was saddened at the thought of not being able to have the thought of him getting hot over the season’s first half and making the All-Star Team, or of him rounding into form just as the weather got nice nationwide and popping those first few 102-mph fastballs of the campaign, or of him doing something silly during an unseasonably cold game in Denver and briefly trending on Twitter.
As baseball’s absence has grown longer, the lament has grown. Not just a month or two have been stolen from our encounter with greatness. A half-season is gone, by the most recent sounds of it. All in-person chances to see him pitch this year are gone, also by the most recent sounds of it. Things, on the surface, look bleak.
But there’s a silver lining to this particular corner of the pandemic, and that’s this: It’s possible the shortened 2020 MLB season will be Joe Kelly’s best.
Hear me out.
If we’re being honest, our guy hasn’t been the model of consistency over his major league career. He has, however, been the model of absolute dominance over intermittent stretches. When the whole season becomes just one, long intermittent stretch, well…I think you can see where this is going.
What can Joe Kelly accomplish in six months? A good year. What could he pull off in three months? An historic year—perhaps even enough to oil up the Hall of Fame Hype Machine™.
Hope the haters are ready.
