Arizona Diamondbacks send Merrill Kelly to Texas Rangers

The Diamondbacks made a pair of moves in the final hour before the trade deadline on Thursday, July 31, sending right-hander Merrill Kelly to the Texas Rangers for a trio of pitching prospects and packaging right-hander Shelby Miller in a cost-cutting deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

The Diamondbacks ultimately decided, however, to keep right-hander Zac Gallen, apparently content with either collecting a draft pick for his departure as a free agent or having him accept a qualifying offer and return for 2026.

In exchange for Kelly, the Diamondbacks received left-handers Kohl Drake and Mitch Bratt and right-hander David Hagaman. Drake ranks as the Rangers’ ninth-best prospect, per Baseball America, while Bratt is 14th and Hagaman 16th.

Miller was sent to the Brewers along with left-hander Jordan Montgomery, a deal that saves the Diamondbacks some $2 million from what was left on his $22.5 million deal. 

The deal came on the heels of the DBacks trading third-baseman Eugenio Suarez to the Mariners for first baseman Tyler Locklear and right-handers Juan Burgos and Hunter Cranton.

Locklear, 24, struggled during his first taste of the majors last season but has been one of the hotter hitters in the minors in recent weeks. For Triple-A Tacoma, he owns a solid .316/.401/.542 line with 19 homers on the season and has hit .390 with 13 homers and a 1.249 OPS over his past 30 games.

The DBacks previously dealt first baseman Josh Naylor to the Mariners and outfielder Randal Grichuk to the Royals.

All told, the Diamondbacks got a pitching-heavy return, with eight of the nine players they received being pitchers. 

“I feel like we brought back a lot of arms, something that I felt like was important as we went forward here,” general manager Mike Hazen said. “A lot of those guys are at the upper levels.”

Kelly’s deal marks the end of a relationship that had been intact since December 2018, when the Diamondbacks signed him to his first major league deal following a four-year run in Korea. He had been one of the more consistent starting pitchers in baseball — and many onlookers saw him as one of the top pitchers available at the deadline this year.

Kelly, who played high school ball at Scottsdale Desert Mountain, told reporters over the weekend in Pittsburgh that even if he were traded he didn’t want to close the door on a possible free-agent reunion with the Diamondbacks during the winter.

Hazen was asked if that came up in conversation when he called Kelly to inform him of the deal.“I won’t get into the specifics of the phone call,” Hazen said, “but we definitely touched on a few topics that maybe in and around those areas.”

Gallen’s struggles this season likely limited his return in the market. For the better part of the previous five seasons, he rated among the better starts in the National League, if not the majors, but he has logged just a 5.60 ERA in 22 starts this year.

With several holes on the pitching staff, the Diamondbacks likely will extend him a qualifying offer at the end of the season — it will likely be worth a little more than last year’s $21.05 million — and bring him back if he accepts or take the draft pick if he declines and signs elsewhere.

Hazen said he was “a little surprised” to have held onto Gallen given the interest he had been getting from rival teams in recent weeks, but he wondered if the shifting landscape of buyers and sellers ultimately played a factor.

“I think what ended up happening, honestly, it probably bled into the Geno (Suarez) discussions as well, there seemed to be a few teams that dropped out the last minute — meaning, the last few days — and became sellers,” Hazen said. “I think that had a material impact on the market.” 

He speculated that influx of sellers meant the buyers were able to “go get somebody (else) for a lot cheaper.”