PITTSBURGH — How about we call it Code Kelly?
Kelly Johnson, a respected but not revered ballplayer, has switched employers 10 times — a simultaneous tribute to his desirability and his dispensability. Yet for whatever cosmic reason, when he joins the Mets — as he did Wednesday for the second time in two years — it seems to carry greater impact.
That he reunites with manager Terry Collins’ group in June 2016, as opposed to July 2015, only magnifies that impact. Johnson, again an import from the Braves, symbolizes the urgency felt in the house of the defending National League champions, who are sick and tired of their offense looking so sick and tired and don’t want their elite pitching staff to go to waste.