Diamondbacks’ Merrill Kelly not optimistic he will start season on time

SURPRISE — Arizona Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly made his 2026 debut in Friday’s spring training game against the Kansas City Royals, but he said after the start that he “won’t be ready to break camp.”

Despite feeling fine during the outing, Kelly said he was not optimistic to avoid the injured list since a back issue delayed his first start by two weeks.

“Any time I think about Opening Day with the boys in L.A., the idea of maybe missing that is obviously not fun,” Kelly said. “Opening Day is special, especially in L.A. I think that’ll be the first one I’ve missed since my debut, if that’s the case. Obviously, anytime you’re away from the team and not enjoying being a part of it is obviously a little bit disappointing. But it’s part of what we do and part of what we sign up for. I hope it shouldn’t be too far after that.”

Kelly stepped away from his throwing program early in camp due to back discomfort and was diagnosed with intercostal nerve irritation.

He received a cortisone and lidocaine injection and has progressed since, but the setback took him out of the running to make his highly anticipated Opening Day start, which would have been the first of his career.

The question became whether he could push for the fifth spot in the rotation or start the season on the IL.

Kelly delivered 36 pitches through 1.2 innings of work against the Royals after manager Torey Lovullo had said he would throw one inning with a chance to touch the second.

Kelly said he did not think about his back while pitching, that he has some pitches to clean up but that’s normal for a first outing. He allowed two runs and had a fun back-and-forth with former D-backs teammate Starling Marte for getting jammed but muscling out a single.

“Just get as ready as I can,” Kelly said of his goal the rest of camp. “Make sure now that we’re, in my mind, past the back stuff, I can focus on those couple of pitches that need a little bit of sharpening.”

Pushing Kelly’s regular season debut back has to do with his build-up but also the roster implications.

If the D-backs place Kelly on the 15-day injured list, they can back-date the designation by three days, allowing him to get ready for the start of Arizona’s road trip at the New York Mets on April 7.

He would miss the first three series of the season, which is 10 games, so essentially two starts.

The Diamondbacks have starting pitching depth after bringing back Zac Gallen — who will start on Opening Day in Kelly’s place — and signing veteran Michael Soroka.

Starters are typically not fully built-up at the start of the season, so there is a risk of overusing the bullpen early on if Kelly could only get through four innings or so.

“Rather than force it, I would say if we can’t get to the point where he’s built up — and it’s looking like that might be the case — let’s just wait a turn and not put a lot of strain or pressure on the bullpen,” Lovullo said on Tuesday.

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