Kelley healthy again and hoping to return to 2016 form

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Ask Shawn Kelley about 2017 and the veteran reliever will talk about how much he enjoyed watching his Nationals teammates play well but how frustrated he was personally to not have contributed much to that success. There were injuries to his neck, back and elbow, and there were some brutal appearances on the mound that led to a 7.27 ERA and an astounding 12 home runs surrendered in only 26 innings.

"I'm just glad it's 2018," he said with a smile.

Kelley is able to smile right now because his arm feels strong. He can't say for certain if it will continue to feel that way through the rigors of a long season. But he and the Nationals are hopeful that the stem cell injection he received in October allows his twice-reconstructed elbow to hold together for one more season and allows him to rediscover the form that made him one of baseball's best relievers in 2015 and 2016.

That stem cell procedure was recommended and ultimately performed by doctors over a surgical procedure to remove the bone chips that are floating in Kelley's elbow. Given how much that elbow has endured during the course of an 11-year professional career - most notably two Tommy John surgeries - this was deemed the less risky move.

One more surgery on that elbow and Kelley, who turns 34 in April, knows he's probably cooked.

"We explored all our options, but that was what we came down with," he said. "And I feel good now, so for now, it seems like it was the right decision."

Kelley and the Nationals have been encouraged by the results so far. He began throwing shortly after New Year's Day and immediately felt a difference.

"Usually, when I start throwing in January, I kind of feel a lot of stuff breaking up in there, a lot of stuff that kind of just sat all offseason," he said. "But I felt really good. The guy that I throw with most in the offseason said: 'Your extension looks better than it did in the last few years.'"

Time will tell if that feeling persists, and if it translates into better results on the mound. Whether it was a byproduct of his health or simple poor execution of pitches, Kelley was highly ineffective last season. He couldn't consistently command his best pitch: a slider. Opponents didn't record many hits off it - they batted only .179 - but he threw it for a strike only 64 percent of the time and saw his strikeout rate on that pitch cut in half.

That freed up batters to sit on Kelley's fastball, and they proceeded to crush that pitch to the tune of a .323 average and 1.174 OPS.

Better health, Kelley believes, should lead to better quality sliders, which should lead to fewer hitters sitting on his fastball, which should lead to better results. Now he just needs to figure out how to maintain his health through a long season.

"Whatever I need to do in the training room," he said. "Whatever I need to do in the weight room. Whatever I need to do conditioning-wise for the rest of my body. If I can just stay in the state that I am right now, and maintain that all season like I did in '16, I have all the confidence in the world that it'll be a great year and I'll be able to help out a lot with these other guys."

The Nationals are counting on it. Though they bring back their top three relievers from the end of last season, they did lose Matt Albers to free agency and haven't added anyone new yet to take that role. The club hopes one or both of Kelley and Koda Glover (who likewise was injured through much of 2017) will step up and assume that key role and become a trusted right-hander in manager Davey Martinez's bullpen.

Kelley appreciates the confidence the organization, led by general manager Mike Rizzo, has shown in him, dating all the way to the end of last season when things had reached a low point.

"We had a good talk, and Rizzo said: 'Look, the only thing I want you to do is whatever procedure we decide to do, stem cell or whatever, is to get healthy. Come to spring training ready to go, because we need you in the long run,' " Kelley recalled. "So we had that conversation, so I knew he was counting on me. ... I'm happy, I'm healthy and trying to do what I did in '16."