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Kelly was traded to the Texas Rangers at the 2025 trade deadline but is now rejoining his original team.The 37-year-old pitcher has been a key part of the Diamondbacks’ rotation for the past six and a half seasons.
It’s rare in Major League Baseball when a longtime player for one team is traded at the deadline, plays out the season on a new team and returns to the original team via free agency.
But that’s how it worked out for right-handed pitcher Merrill Kelly, the hometown guy from Scottsdale who agreed to return to the Diamondbacks on a two-year contract, announced Friday, Dec. 19.
Kelly was traded to the Texas Rangers last summer, an exchange that netted the Diamondbacks three pitching prospects. The team’s payroll situation had a hand in preventing the Diamondbacks from keeping Kelly, but a deal worth $40 million over the two years was reached in the past week.
Kelly, 37, is realistic about where he is in his career. A mainstay and key part of the Diamondbacks’ starting rotation for the past 6 ½ seasons, he realizes this contract, for which he’s thankful, could be his last as a player.
“Me knowing what this last deal, or possibly this last deal, brings for me and my family, and where we’ve been to get here and the journey that we took, there was a good amount of emotions and reflections … on where I started on my journey just career-wise and how many years it’s been,” Kelly said.
“It goes by fast, and looking back on the last 15 years to kind of all culminate into what this deal is and what it means for me, I think about it a lot and I’m forever grateful for the DBacks’ organization for allowing me to kind of finish my journey with this deal.”
When he takes the mound for the first time in a regular-season start in 2026, Kelly will be the third Diamondbacks pitcher to appear in eight seasons with the club, joining Randy Johnson and Andrew Chafin. He and pitcher Kevin Ginkel are the second-longest-tenured players on the team, behind Ketel Marte for the moment.
The former Scottsdale Desert Mountain, Yavapai College and Arizona State standout spent his first five pro seasons in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, followed by four in Korea before signing with the Diamondbacks seven years ago.
Since then, Kelly is fourth in career wins (62), starts (162) and innings (953.0) among pitchers with 50 or more career starts with the Diamondbacks.
In 2025 with the Diamondbacks and Rangers, Kelly went a combined 12-9 with a 3.52 earned run average with 167 strikeouts over 32 starts. With the Diamondbacks, he was 9-6 with a 3.22 ERA, .206 opponent batting average, 38 walks and 121 strikeouts.
Kelly has posted 12 or more wins in three of his past four seasons. He’s 89 strikeouts away from 1,000 in his career.
“He’s been one of the most consistent starting pitchers we’ve had here,” Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen said. “He’s a leader in our clubhouse. He’s got the makeup to be at the front of our rotation; he gives a lot of stability to our rotation.
“Never really wanted to trade him, but we kind of hashed through that the 2025 season didn’t go exactly how we envisioned for a lot of us and the team and the players. But we’re happy that we’ve been reunited.”
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The Diamondbacks not only got Kelly back, but in exchange for losing him for part of last season, they acquired left-handers Kohl Drake and Mitch Bratt and right-hander David Hagaman from the Rangers.
The three were top-15 pitching prospects in the Rangers organization.
The Diamondbacks and Hazen, who will remain active in search of both starting and bullpen help this offseason, have an experienced group of starters heading into 2026. Kelly joins left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez and righties Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Mike Soroka in the rotation as it stands, with Corbin Burnes coming back perhaps around midseason from elbow surgery.
Kelly said at times last season that he wanted to stay with Arizona for the rest of his career.
“I didn’t really want to go anywhere else,” he said on Dec. 19. “I was obviously open to going anywhere else just because of taking the best opportunity that we could. But being back here means a lot, not only for me but my direct family, my wife and my kids, but also my extended family with my in-laws and my parents being here, and my friends and family that have watched me play for so long.
“It means a lot knowing that they can continue to do that.”
Interest in Marte continues
Hazen was asked about interest from other teams regarding star second baseman Ketel Marte.
“There’s been continuous interest. He’s one of the best players in baseball,” Hazen said. “The interest would be reflective of what you would imagine it to be.”
José M. Romero can be reached at jose.romero@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @RomeroJoseM or Instagram at @romerojosem.