D-backs' Merrill Kelly Reveals True Thoughts About Trade Deadline

Merrill Kelly is having another excellent season for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 21 starts he's gone 9-5 with a 3.32 ERA. He leads the team with 12 quality starts, and other than a couple of rough outings has been every bit the "mainstay" of the rotation.

He's also in the last year of an extremely team-friendly contract extension and will be a free agent at the conclusion of the 2025 season.

That makes Kelly one of the biggest names and most sought-after players as the MLB July 31 trade deadline approaches.

The Diamondbacks are 50-53, 5.5 games behind the San Diego Padres for the third NL Wild Card. They are almost certainly sellers at this point in time.

Other than Kelly there are six other free agents at the end of the season, including marquee names Zac Gallen, Eugenio Suarez, and Josh Naylor. The list also includes Shelby Miller, Jalen Beeks, and Randal Grichuk.

I had a chance to catch up with Kelly one-on-one prior to the Diamondbacks' loss to the Astros on Wednesday.

The veteran right-hander was open and honest about the current situation with the team, and his own situation. Here then is a very lightly-edited transcript of that Q&A session.

What is the feeling and mood in the clubhouse at the moment?

"There's not really any panic. There hasn't really been, I don't think, all year. Obviously, with the deadline coming up, there's a lot of chatter and speculation, just like there is outside of here.

"But I think once the game starts, I get a sense we're doing a pretty good job of blocking all that out and just going out and doing our job."

How hard is it for guys to just shut off their phones and not deal with all the deadline talk and rumors?

"I would say impossible, right? I mean, anytime you hop on Twitter, anytime you hop on Instagram, anytime you hop on any social media baseball related at all, it's pretty much all trades."

"It's kind of funny the way with social media, I think the trade deadline takes on some sort of a doomsday persona. I think the way we talk about it is like the season ends in eight days, and that's obviously not the case. There's a lot of baseball to be played."

How had has it affected you personally?

"It's been an interesting concept for me, just being a part of it more than I think I ever have been. But at the end of the day, you gotta just go out and try to ignore it as best you can. The only thing you can really control is what we do between the lines."

Has the trade deadline provided any motivation?

"I think we're doing a good job of trying to play for each other. Obviously, nobody wants anybody to get traded. Fortunately, we all like each other in here. We have a pretty good clubhouse, so we're trying, I think, to play for each other so that we don't have to treat the trade deadlines as apocalyptic."

"I mean, obviously, I think this team can win. I want to win with this team. That's my main priority right now."

How open would you be to coming back to Arizona if they did trade you?

"Extremely, I wouldn't harbor any type of hard feelings if I got traded. At this point in my career, my focus is to win. I don't know how many years I'm still gonna be doing this after this year. So that's my priority."

"And if it were to a team that is in the hunt and had a good chance to make the playoffs and make a run at the World Series, I think that would be a lot of fun at this point in my career. That being said, I've always wanted to be here."

"I still want be here. If I don't get traded, I'm definitely not gonna be mad about it. But if I do, yeah, there's always a possibility that I would come back here."

"The front office knows how fond I am of being here and being home. I know my wife is fond of being here and being home. Regardless of what happens after the 31st, being here is never off the table."

Ironically, if the team did trade you, then you might be able to come back to a stronger team in 2026 as a result of that

"If that were to happen, I would hope in the offseason that they do, just like I hope every front office does every offseason, is try to improve the team. And we'll take a look at that when it's all set up. We still got a lot of baseball to play before then and now."

What do you attribute the most to your ability to continuously make improvements and become the pitcher you are today?

"I think just experience means a lot. It's the seventh year in the big leagues. It's my 15th professional season. The longer you play the more experience you gain. The more times you fail, the more times you learn. "

"Taking all of that into being able to filter through some of the knowledge that we get, whether it's scouting reports or the homework that I do on hitters, that combination of things has allowed me to be more confident going into each and every game."

"It goes back a lot more on experience than just the scouting. I've faced Manny Machado. I've faced any superstar that you wanna say in the game, I've faced them, right? Once you get past the stardom that you see as a younger player, you realize they wear big league uniforms, just like you."

"But once I got past that and really understood that I do belong here and that I can get people out, I think that was a big part of it."

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