Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly has been battling some back tightness this week. A quick diagnosis was expected but the issue is dragging on a bit longer than initially anticipated, as detailed by Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.
The issue first cropped up on Saturday, which led to Kelly being scratched from a live batting practice session. He was sent for an MRI and those results were expected to be announced on Monday. He has instead been sent for additional testing, including a CT scan, with the club still avoiding any kind of official announcement on his status.
“It’s a wide range,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I’m not going to lie. We’re being very thorough with what we’re doing. We’re taking every test necessary to make sure that we get everything in the bag before we start to pass that information along. We’ve got to figure out exactly what’s happening in there.”
Time will tell if this is just the club being cautious or if it’s a sign the injury is more significant than anticipated. If Kelly has to miss any time, it would be less than ideal for a club with subpar rotation depth. Right now, they project to have Kelly alongside Zac Gallen and Ryne Nelson with Eduardo Rodríguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Michael Soroka battling for two spots. If Kelly is on the shelf, then everyone in that group would be in line for rotation gigs to open the season.
The Snakes also have Yilber Díaz, Cristian Mena, Kohl Drake, Mitch Bratt and Dylan Ray on the 40-man roster and the guys in that group could suddenly jump to next-man-up status. No one in that cluster has even 32 big league innings pitched. Non-roster invitees with some big league experience include Joe Ross, Thomas Hatch and Bryce Jarvis.
Elsewhere, Arizona has a fairly wide open outfield group. They traded away Jake McCarthy in the offseason and Corbin Carroll require hamate surgery, meaning he could start the season on the injured list. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is recovering from last year’s surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was expected to be out until the All-Star break. There are some signs he could beat that timeline but he is still projected to start the season on the IL.
That leaves Alek Thomas as the lone guy seemingly locked into a spot. Jordan Lawlar could be in there as well, though he is still getting accustomed to the outfield after coming up as an infielder. He also hasn’t hit at the big league level yet, though he has destroyed the minors and is out to a strong start this spring.
That leaves a path open for prospect Ryan Waldschmidt and Piecoro writes that the club hasn’t ruled out the possibility of him breaking camp with the club. It would be fairly bold if the Snakes ultimately went down that path. Waldschmidt topped out at Double-A last year and isn’t yet on the 40-man roster. But he can clearly hit, as shown by last year’s .289/.419/.473 slash line and 142 wRC+. He hit a home run off Pedro Avila of the Guardians in yesterday’s Cactus League game.
Waldschmidt is a consensus top 100 prospect in the league, so he would be eligible for the prospect promotion incentive if he cracked the Opening Day roster. If he went on to win Rookie of the Year or finish top three in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration years, the Snakes would net a future draft pick just after the first round.
It’s possible there’s a great amount of fluidity in the Arizona outfield this year. Between Carroll, Thomas, Gurriel, Waldschmidt, Lawlar, Jorge Barrosa, Pavin Smith and Tim Tawa, they have a number of options in the mix, with health and performance surely to shuffle the depth charts over the months to come.
Photo courtesy of Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images