Kelly deftly displays changeup in perfect Cactus League outing

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Merrill Kelly's fastball velocity was up a tick in his first outing of the spring in the D-backs' 5-3 win over the Giants on Wednesday at Scottsdale Stadium, but that wasn't what he felt the best about.

It wasn't even the three dominant innings -- no hits or walks allowed with eight strikeouts -- that had him smiling when he was done.

Instead, it was the way his changeup felt.

"I was happy to see the changeup doing what it was doing," Kelly said. "It's a pitch I have always prided myself on, and I think the last couple of years, it hasn't been -- at least for me -- as good as it should be. And I'm happy with what I see from it so far."

Kelly was the D-backs' most consistent starter in 2021, leading the team with 27 starts -- it would have been more had he not gotten shut down for an extended period due to COVID-19.

"One word that comes up when describing Merrill would be consistency," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "Just extremely dependable. You know what you're going to get. He's going to pitch to a gameplan and execute at a very high level. I think it's yielded some very positive results for him."

Consistency is the same word that Kelly used when talking about his hope for his changeup.

To that end, Kelly spent this winter working on the mechanics of throwing his changeup, as well as experimenting with different grips to try and get it to where he wants it to be.

"Sometimes it would cut, sometimes it would kind of just float," Kelly said of the pitch, describing the past couple years. "Not the swing and misses that I saw today with it. Just trying not to do too much with it, trying to just focus on throwing it and not trying to manipulate it. I think I got a little too focused on trying to be too fine with it just because it wasn't doing what I thought it should do. And the focus this offseason was just to throw it in and see what I got. And then once it started showing more consistency, I was able to kind of fine-tune a little bit more."

Hold on there, Freight Train
D-backs left fielder David Peralta thought he had drawn a two-out walk off Giants starter Logan Webb in the first inning. Peralta took off his shin guard, tossed his bat and headed up the first-base line.

Webb looked confused and with good reason -- it was only ball three.

The always good-natured Peralta got back in the box, and when he took the next pitch for a ball, he turned to home plate umpire Alex Tosi with a smile to make sure it was now ball four.

Game note
Outfielder Dominic Canzone continues to impress, hitting a monster pinch-hit homer to right in the eighth inning. It was his second homer of the spring.

No hearings
The D-backs managed to avoid salary arbitration with all four of their arbitration-eligible players.

Catcher Carson Kelly, outfielder Jordan Luplow, first baseman Christian Walker and right-hander Luke Weaver all agreed to one-year deals.

As for the pre-arb players ...
The D-backs announced Wednesday that they had reached agreement with all 27 of their pre-arbitration players. Those players could either agree to terms or have their contracts renewed, something teams try to avoid.

No players had their contract renewed. The following players agreed to terms:

Right-handed pitchers (11): J.B. Bukauskas, Humberto Castellanos, Luis Frías, Zac Gallen, Corbin Martin, Humberto Mejía, Matt Peacock, Sean Poppen, Edwin Uceta, Ryan Weiss and Taylor Widener

Left-handed pitchers (4): Caleb Baragar, Tyler Gilbert, Joe Mantiply and Kyle Nelson

Catchers (2): Jose Herrera and Daulton Varsho

Position Players (10): Seth Beer, Drew Ellis, Stuart Fairchild, Cooper Hummel, Jake McCarthy, Geraldo Perdomo, Kristian Robinson, Josh Rojas, Pavin Smith and Josh VanMeter

Up next
The D-backs travel to Maryvale to take on the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at 1:10 MST with Taylor Widener starting and Dan Straily also set to see action. Fans can watch a live broadcast of the game on MLB.TV.

Widener is being stretched out as a starter this spring with a chance to either win a rotation spot or a bullpen job. This will be his first appearance of the Cactus League.

Ketel Marte is slated to start at second base for the D-backs. Marte had been slowed at the beginning of camp with eye irritation, but he made his debut Tuesday as the designated hitter and went 0-for-3.