PHOENIX -- Not long after he was diagnosed with a torn ACL in his right knee last September, Diamondbacks outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sat in manager Torey Lovullo's office and made a promise.
Gurriel told Lovullo that he would beat the expected timeline for his return, which initially seemed to indicate that he would miss months, plural, of the 2026 season.
Consider Gurriel a man of his word, as he returned to the active roster Saturday and was in the lineup batting fourth and playing left field against the Blue Jays.
"The promise that he made when he stepped out of my office, those are things I'll never forget," Lovullo said. "He went home, he addressed his offseason routine as good as anybody I've ever seen, and he committed to being back this early. So, it was a quick turnaround."
Gurriel spent his time rehabbing in Miami under the guidance of trainer Jorge Rivera, whom Gurriel said deserved a lot of credit for his quick recovery.
"I know he was very motivated," Arizona GM Mike Hazen said. "I know he went to Miami and worked out with his rehab guy there, and every time I checked in during the offseason, they were like, 'He's doing great. He's reporting that he's way ahead of schedule, that he feels great.' And that was consistent from start to finish. So he pushed it hard, and he says he feels great. And he's pushed. He's wanted to push."
The veteran said he didn't take a day off during the offseason, but he did admit that there were days he didn't think he'd be back this quick, or even at all.
"There were a lot of frustrating days," Gurriel said via translator Alex Arpiza. "There were days where I thought I wasn't gonna be able to play anymore, that I wasn't advancing. This is the first time that I've gone through an injury like this."
But as Gurriel continued to make progress and Spring Training approached, he began to feel like his old self, and when he met with Lovullo and Hazen at the start of Spring Training, he told them that he was going to be ready for Opening Day.
"I'm sure if we left it up to him, he would have been on the Opening Day roster," Hazen said.
The Diamondbacks organization was thrilled with the progress that Gurriel made, and they loved his desire to be a part of the Opening Day roster, but they weren't about to take any chances. With an injury like a torn ACL, there is a risk of pushing it too far too soon, allowing inflammation to get into the area. It can be a major setback.
So while Gurriel was pushing to get into Cactus League games, the Diamondbacks limited him to backfield games and took it slowly with him running the bases.
After the regular season started, Gurriel began playing in extended spring games and recently went to Double-A Amarillo where he played two games, both in left field on back-to-back days.
Gurriel returned to Phoenix on Friday and Lovullo, after initially thinking Gurriel would need to serve as the DH, put him in Saturday's lineup in left field and said the plan is for him to play left again on Sunday.
The Diamondbacks have a day off Monday, after which Lovullo said Gurriel will likely play all three games of the White Sox series.
"We're basically gonna hopefully get him every day for the next five," Lovullo said. "But, we will make adjustments depending on how he's feeling or that volume. And also we'll mix in some DH days there as well. But tomorrow, I have [him] penciled in left field again."
Gurriel, entering his ninth Major League season, hit .248 with 19 home runs and 80 RBIs in 2025 before suffering his season-ending injury pursuing a routine fly ball on Sept. 1.
Since joining the D-backs in 2023, Gurriel has been a relative mainstay for a club often in flux, with his 407 games played trailing only Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo. In that time, he has ranked second on the team in doubles (81), third in both hits (411) and RBIs (237) and fourth in home runs (61).