There won’t be any mystery to who will be starting Opening Day for the Diamondbacks in 2026. Manager Torey Lovullo already revealed his starter, with Merrill Kelly getting the nod. He’ll face the defending back-to-back champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on March 26.
It comes as a full-circle moment in Kelly’s career. The right-hander pitched much of his amateur career in Arizona, which includes Desert Mountain High School, Yavapai Community College, and Arizona State University. He also started his MLB career in Arizona, signing with the Diamondbacks for the first time in 2018, following a successful stint in Korea.
“I think as a kid you always envision it growing up,” Kelly told The Arizona Republic‘s Jose Romero. “We’re always imagining stuff in the backyard, whether it’s two outs in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series or Opening Day at Dodger Stadium would probably be one of them.
“As I progressed and got older, and just how the course of my career has gone, and the type of pitcher I am, I don’t think it was on my bingo card. If you had asked me seven years ago if I would ever get an Opening Day start, I probably would have told you no.”
Kelly will make his first career Opening Day start in his eighth season with the Diamondbacks. That comes after signing a two-year deal to reunite with the team he spent the previous seven seasons with.
Merrill Kelly on Zac Gallen’s Return
Kelly wasn’t the only Diamondbacks starter to return this offseason. Zac Gallen, his teammate for all seven seasons in Arizona, just re-signed on a one-year deal . Instead of taking the multiyear offers he didn’t want, Gallen decided to return to a team he was familiar with and hope for rebound.
“[He’s] the best,” Kelly told the media, including Arizona Sports’ Alex Weiner . “That’s my locker mate for the last seven years. That’s the guy I golf with on the road. And obviously, what he brings to the team, what he brings to the rotation means a lot.
“It gives us a lot more depth in that area. It gives us a lot more, just in case of [injury] situations, and I think everyone is happy to see him.”
Both Gallen and Kelly joined the Diamondbacks in the 2019 season. Kelly was an offseason signing out of Korea, one of general manager Mike Hazen’s most shrewd moves in nine seasons.
The two pitchers came of age together, emerging as frontline starters in 2022 and leading the club to the World Series in 2023. Gallen was Arizona’s Game 1 starter and Kelly their Game 2 throughout that postseason.
When the Diamondbacks collapsed in 2025, there was a good chance the two pitchers would both move on. Kelly was traded at the deadline for three pitching prospects and Gallen rejected a qualifying offer to become a free agent. However, as luck would have it, they’ll get at least one more year together. With the duo experiencing the many highs and lows of the big leagues together, it’s only fitting that they both returned in the same offseason after reaching free agency.
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