Before the 2020 Major League Baseball season was put on hold due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, expectations in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization were extremely high.
Not only did the team return almost their entire nucleus from 2019 when they won a franchise-record 106 games, but they also added a former MVP in Mookie Betts and Cy Young Award winner in David Price to the mix after completing a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox just before the start of Spring Training.
Betts and Price joining the Dodgers created a marked a reunion of sorts when accounting for Joe Kelly. He also was on the 2018 World Series team that beat the Dodgers before joining L.A. in free agency that offseason.
In an interview on the “Bradfo Show” on WEEI Radio, Kelly spoke about his first reaction to the trade and being teammates with both Betts and Price once again:
“I was shocked, first of all, that it actually went down. And then I was super pumped that not only was it Mookie, but it was D.P., too. It was one of my closest teammates and friends on the Red Sox, and then it was one of my closest teammates and friends as an opposing player on the Red Sox. It was really exciting.
“It was kind of like fantasyland where names are being thrown around and then when it got more serious, I was like, ‘Man, I hope this goes through,’ because I was already planning on them being on the team. If it didn’t go through, is there going to be a letdown? It happened, and it was amazing. It was one of the coolest things and craziest trades I’ve seen.”
Hopefully the 2020 season is able to get started at some point and isn’t cancelled altogether, or else Betts will have the ability to hit free agency come the winter without ever playing a single regular-season game in a Dodger uniform.
Price, on the other hand, is under contract through the 2022 season, so he will be teammates with Kelly in 2021 at the very least. Price recently spoke about how difficult this hiatus has been for him as he and Betts were just beginning to get to know their new teammates.
If MLB does get underway this year, they will be a heavy favorite to represent the National League in the World Series, and this time, Betts, Price and Kelly would all be on their side of the field.
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