Joe Kelly has been mostly terrible for the Chicago White Sox this season.
The Chicago White Sox was a team looking to win the World Series during the offseason. Because of this, for better or worse, they felt it was necessary to shore up the bullpen. One of the pieces they added in this process was Joe Kelly.
At the moment, it might have felt like a smart decision. Kelly was a two-time World Series champion with two different teams and had many other deep playoff runs. Pitching in high-leverage situations was a specialty for him.
Unfortunately, he just hasn’t been that good for the team in 2022. He has come into some high-leverage situations and low-leverage situations and had mixed results. His numbers in 2022 are not good at all.
He has a 7.07 ERA with a 1.679 WHIP. He has had a fair amount of strikeout success as he has 35 in 28.0 innings pitched but the runs allowed have been his detriment. The 18 walks that he has allowed have hurt as well. All of this accumulated a -0.8 WAR which is atrocious.
Kelly started the year hurt and hasn’t been the same this year as a result. That makes his contract look pretty bad as he is making over 8 million dollars in 2022 and 2023. There is a team option for 2024 but if he continues to struggle, he for sure won’t be back.