Kelly Slam Yankees: They are not a real playoff contender

Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly believes that the New York Yankees were one of the worst teams in the entire postseason despite making the World Series.

During a recent appearance on The Baseball Isn’t Poring podcast, Kelly did not hold back on his true thoughts on the Yankees.

“We were saying it every single game, just let them throw the ball to the infield,” Kelly said. “They can’t make a play. I mean, you saw, Shohei got an extra base going to third on a sloppy Gleyber play. It’s well known. We all knew. We’re the Dodgers we know every little detail. But past that, it was a fun series. They almost snagged a couple of wins. It was just a mismatch from the get go. Like if we had a playoff re-ranking, they might be ranked 8th or 9th best playoff team.

Kelly went on to list all the teams he felt were better than the Yankees during the postseason, including the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, and Atlanta Braves.

The Dodgers defeated the Yankees in five games, only losing one game. In the National League Division Series, the Dodgers’ series with the San Diego Padres went to all five games as L.A. lost two. Even in the NL Championship Series, the Dodgers and New York Mets went six games, with L.A. losing two.

“And it was kind of the same feeling from 2018, when we had to go play the Dodgers. Like the Red Sox were just the way better team,” Kelly said. “All we knew is that we had to play regular Dodger baseball. We didn’t have to do anything crazy, and we were going to win the World Series. Look at the team, look at the talent. We go through numerous scouting reports. We pay attention to every single detail. We have a lot of big superstars in our clubhouse, but our superstars also care and aren’t lazy and play hard. That’s the difference and the biggest separator.”

While the Dodgers did beat the Yankees in five games, there were points when the series was closer than the outcome. In Game 1, the two teams were pretty evenly matched, with the game going into extra innings as the game was tied 2-2. The Yankees took a lead in the 10th inning, and the Dodgers won on a walk-off grand slam from Freddie Freeman. Had Freeman not hit that incredible home run, the outcome could have easily differed. Even in Game 5, the Yankees had a 5-0 lead that they blew for the Dodgers to win the series.

The Dodgers clearly emerged as the best team at the end of the series, but that doesn’t mean the Yankees were necessarily the worst. Kelly thinks otherwise, though.