D-backs shortstop Nick Ahmed may not be back in the lineup until next week as he continues to work his way back from stiffness in his right knee.

Ahmed was first scratched from the lineup Monday and manager Torey Lovullo initially said the shortstop could be back in a few days, but while the injury is not believed to be serious, the D-backs want to err on the side of caution.

"It was more annoying than anything in the beginning part of Spring Training," Ahmed said. "I would just wake up a little stiff here and there, and [walking] up and down stairs, occasionally, I would feel stiff. But a week and a half or so ago, I felt it a little bit while playing and swinging and taking groundballs. So I thought it was smart to not let things linger. And obviously, beginning of March, it was a good time to kind of pull things back and address what's going on and make sure it wasn't an issue once the season got rolling."

Ahmed has not had any testing done -- such as an MRI -- on the knee, which indicates the D-backs' medical staff is not concerned about it being anything serious at this point.

For now, he is just getting treatment in the training room each day and he's been pleased with the progress.

"It's much better today than it was a week ago," Ahmed said. "And today [it's better] than yesterday. So a little bit of progress every day. It's still not perfect. But it'll be, you know, better tomorrow than today. And same thing the next day."

Timmy Lo to return
Outfielder Tim Locastro, who Lovullo said tested positive for COVID-19, is expected to be back in camp and could even be in the starting lineup Saturday when the D-backs play the Padres.

"I've talked to the medical team and they said that if he's feeling OK [Saturday] that he should be able to play no problem," Lovullo said. "He'll get a couple of at-bats and get off the field pretty quickly. But get him back into the rhythm of getting into a baseball game and on the baseball field."

Signings and a renewal
Arizona agreed to terms with 25 pre-arbitration players and renewed the contract of another -- Zac Gallen, who threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings and punched out four in the D-backs' 4-3 loss to the Angels on Friday.

The moves mean that all members of the 40-man roster are now under contract for 2021.

Gallen chose to accept a renewal rather than sign for what the team was offering.

"It was just something that my [agency] and I felt … like the system that goes about assessing that and calculating the pay just wasn't fair based on performance last year," Gallen said. "So it's just something we took into account [and] thought about a little bit and just didn't think it was fair."

Roster moves

The D-backs thinned out their roster Friday, sending out seven players.

Right-handers Jeremy Beasley, Humberto Castellanos, Luis Frías and Humberto Mejía, along with infielder-outfielder Andrew Young were optioned to Triple-A Reno.

Lefty Tyler Gilbert and catcher Jamie Ritchie were also reassigned to Minor League camp.

Up next

Josh Green will start for the D-backs on Saturday afternoon against the Padres in Peoria. Right-handers Yoan López, Chris Devenski, J.B. Bukauskas and Stefan Crichton, as well as lefty Ryan Buchter, are also scheduled to pitch.

Merrill Kelly, whose turn in the rotation is up, will face the Cubs in a morning "B" game rather than give the division-rival Padres another look at him. The D-backs open the season against the Padres on April 1 and Kelly will likely pitch in that four-game series.