This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Merrill Kelly was at home helping to care for his newborn son when he got a text from his agent asking if he had heard about the Diamondbacks signing free agent Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million deal.
"I didn't know what he was talking about so I hopped on Twitter or X and it shocked me," Kelly said. "I don't think any of us anticipated that we would be adding a pitcher like that this offseason."
Kelly's shock has turned to excitement about what Burnes brings to the rotation.
"Corbin has earned it," Kelly said. "He's special, he's a workhorse. I think we learned last year with all of us getting hurt that you can never have too much pitching."
Indeed, while much is made about there being seven starters in the Arizona rotation and that they have to move one of them, last year was a cautionary tale.
Kelly, who has been a workhorse himself, Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jordan Montgomery and Ryne Nelson all spent time on the injured list with only Brandon Pfaadt emerging unscathed from what was the projected Opening Day rotation.
A shoulder injury kept Kelly on the shelf from mid-April until the second week in August, robbing Arizona of arguably its most consistent pitcher.
But the good news for Kelly and the Diamondbacks is he came back healthy for the final two months of the season and now has had a full offseason under his belt.
"I feel great," Kelly said. "The shoulder feels great. It was good to have a full, healthy offseason, it's been a little bit."
The previous year didn't end for the Diamondbacks until November thanks to their surprising run to the World Series, and the offseason following 2022 was a little different for Kelly, as he prepared a little quicker to be ready to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
The Diamondbacks won five more games in 2024 than they did in 2023, but were left on the outside looking in when they wound up in a three-way tie with the Braves and Mets for the final two NL Wild Card spots.
Because they had lost the season series to both of those teams, the Diamondbacks could only watch on the Monday following their final game as the Braves and Mets matched up in a makeup doubleheader.
Arizona needed one of the teams to sweep the doubleheader in order to make the postseason, but the two clubs split. So the Diamondbacks, who had reported to Chase Field with their suitcases ready to catch a charter flight for Milwaukee, instead headed home for the winter, one game shy of the postseason.
"I think what the hardest part was is we had it in our hands," Kelly said. "All we had to do was win one more game. So that final week we just needed to win one more game and then [on Monday] it wasn't in our hands and all we could do was watch."
It took Kelly a little bit to process it all, but his focus now is on Spring Training, which is just a little more than a month away.
"Once you get past New Year's it almost feels like Spring Training has started," Kelly said.
That's because a lot of the Diamondbacks players live near the team's Spring Training facility in Scottsdale, so there is a large contingent of them already there ramping up.
Kelly has been splitting time between Salt River Fields and another workout facility but he will start spending even more time at Salt River Fields soon once newly-hired pitching coach Brian Kaplan is there on a more full-time basis.