Kelly opens up in Q&A as he nears return

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D-backs right-hander Merrill Kelly, who has been on the injured list with a blood clot in his lower right leg since June 27, threw 85 pitches in a live batting practice session Thursday and seems likely to return to the rotation sometime next week.

In his live game outings, Kelly has thrown from behind an “L” screen to protect against getting hit by comebackers since he is still on a full dose of blood thinners.

Kelly was kind enough to take some time Friday to answer a few questions:

MLB.com: How scary was it for you when you first got the diagnosis of a blood clot?

Kelly: Honestly, this one wasn’t really scary. I was more bummed than anything. For some reason, I don’t know whether it was just the way that everyone else was treating it or maybe the fact that I’ve been through one already. I don’t know. Maybe I was a little bit more numb to it. When it first happened, [former D-backs pitcher Ian] Kennedy came into my mind immediately, obviously, and just having watched his situation as a teammate last year I think that kind of gave me some peace of mind at the time. And then obviously the fact that after I got the initial ultrasound, just kind of what the course of action was. It was, ‘Go back to the hotel, start on blood thinners’ and kind of just go from there. Obviously, with the one I had in 2020 the reaction was from the doctors was, ‘Hey, you’ve got a big clot in your shoulder, let’s get you to the hospital as soon as we can’ type situation. So I think the fact that nobody treated this one that way off the jump, I think it kind of made me feel a little bit better about it.

MLB.com: It seems like the rehab process has gone pretty smoothly for you.

Kelly: Luckily I didn’t shut things down at all. I played catch basically the first day that I was back here after I spent the night in San Francisco [after being diagnosed] and kind of just ever since then, it’s kind of just been smooth sailing. It’s been kind of just a build-up more than anything, just taking those couple of days off, missing those starts. It’s really been more about kind of just getting my pitch count up and getting my body ready again, pitching a live game, but as far as anything else, it’s been like I said — kind of smooth sailing.

MLB.com: Since you’ve been out the team has hit a little bit of a rough patch, how hard has that been for you to see and not be able to help change? I guess when you’re out and the team is playing well, you miss being a part of it too, but you’ve always been a guy that wants to be out there when he’s needed most.

Kelly: Yeah, no doubt. I think just the fact that I’ve been here for as long as I have and kind of the ups and downs that we’ve had as an organization, as a team, it definitely bums me out watching the games and not being able to be out there with the guys and contribute to the journey that we’re on and the place that we want to get to. I know we’ve got plenty of guys after me that are ready to step up and contribute. But yeah, not going to lie, it’s been a little tough — especially because it’s a situation where I feel fine. It’s not like I’m sitting here with a blown elbow or a blown shoulder knowing that I just am not going to make it back and I’m just on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. In a situation like this, my body feels ready to go.