One former Boston Red Sox fan-favorite is wrapping up his big league career, without saying the word “retirement.”
Three-time World Series champion Joe Kelly hasn’t pitched in a big league game since 2024. Earlier in the week, Kelly joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast and called it quits, but specifically avoided the word “retirement.”
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“Retiring is like something that my grandmother did,” Kelly said to Bradford. “It’s so disrespectful. I’m sorry to all you people out there watching this that work a real job. You guys deserve to retire. Athletes don’t. We just stop (expletive) playing. It’s used for people who served in the military. It’s used for people who work until (65 years old) like they have to. They probably don’t even like their job, but they had to. So, when athletes are done playing, just say congratulations. They’re no longer playing. No more retirement (expletive).”
The former Red Sox flamethrower is hanging them up
Morning podcast: Our guy Joe Kelly just called it quits in the most Joe Kelly way ever.
Listen: https://t.co/FzfMNxFnIu pic.twitter.com/V9Qxu2bicO— Baseball Isn’t Boring (@BBisntBoring) December 22, 2025
Kelly played parts of 13 big league seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Chicago White Sox. The flamethrower was a significant piece of the Red Sox’s bullpen en route to the 2018 World Series. Overall, he spent parts of five seasons in Boston and had a 4.33 ERA across 182 regular-season appearances. Boston is the club where Kelly made his most regular-season appearances of his major league career.
Kelly will be remembered the most in Boston for being nails in the playoffs — and also fighting Tyler Austin when he was a member of the New York Yankees.
7 years ago today:
Joe Kelly and Tyler Austin square up during a Yankees-Red Sox showdown
Iconic pic.twitter.com/tTslXz2EHH
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) April 11, 2025
Kelly appeared in 14 games for the Red Sox in the playoffs throughout his stint with the organization. Over that stretch, he logged an eye-popping 0.51 ERA and 17-to-0 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 17 2/3 innings pitched. You can’t really get much better than that.
The flamethrower was beloved in Boston — and everywhere else he went. What a run and a perfect way to announce it’s over.
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