D’Backs Exercise Option On Kelly, Decline Option On McGough; Pederson Declines Mutual Option

The Diamondbacks will be exercising their $7MM club option on Merrill Kelly for the 2025 season, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.  The team will also be declining their end of a $4MM mutual option on right-hander Scott McGough, as McGough will head into free agency with a $750K buyout.  He’ll be joined by Joc Pederson, who took a $3MM buyout after declining his end of a $14MM mutual option for the 2025 campaign.

All three decisions were expected, even with Kelly missing over half of the season due to a teres major strain.  The right-hander was limited to 73 2/3 innings over 13 starts, with a 4.03 ERA and some pretty unimpressive Statcast numbers, save for a solid 6.3% walk rate.

Assuming good health for Kelly next year, however, the $6MM decision (there was a $1MM buyout attached) was still an easy one for Arizona to make, given how well he has generally pitched over his six seasons in a Diamondbacks uniform.  Kelly didn’t make his MLB debut until age 30, after the D’Backs signed him to return to North America after a successful four-season run in the KBO League.  Over the course of two separate contracts with Arizona, Kelly has now earned $37.5MM over a seven-year span since returning from South Korea.

The D’Backs were hoping for more reclamation success when they signed McGough to a two-year, $6.25MM deal in the 2022-23 offseason, as McGough had pitched well over four seasons with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball.  Unfortunately, McGough posted a 4.73 ERA in 70 1/3 innings out of Arizona’s bullpen in 2023, and then a 7.44 ERA in 32 2/3 frames this season.  The right-hander’s home run and walk rates were constant issues, while McGough’s strikeout rate also plummeted from 28.6% in 2023 to just 16.7% this season.

Pederson almost exclusively faced right-handed pitching this season, and was utilized only as a designated hitter.  Albeit within this limited scope, Pederson enjoyed a monster year, hitting .275/.393/.515 with 23 homers over 449 plate appearances.  Among all position-player free agents, only six posted a higher fWAR than Pederson’s 3.0 mark in 2024, and only Juan Soto had a higher wRC+ than Pederson’s 151.

While Pederson resisted being a full-time platoon player or DH earlier in his career, embracing his specialist role has obvious upside, and could lead to another nice payday as he enters his age-33 season.  No shortage of teams could use Pederson’s power, and a return to the D’Backs is certainly a possibility given how well the veteran slugger performed in his first season in Arizona.  Randal Grichuk also declined his end of a mutual option, leaving the Diamondbacks without both pieces of their unofficial lefty-righty platoon.  Depending on the asking prices, the D’Backs could perhaps look to re-sign one of Pederson or Grichuk, and then look another complementary bat to fill the other side of the virtual platoon.