PHOENIX -- After the Diamondbacks landed home Sunday night after an 11-day, nine-game road trip that included six losses in a row and a sell-off at the Trade Deadline, the team bus dropped players and staff off at Chase Field.
Zac Gallen walked into the clubhouse to retrieve something from his locker. As he turned to walk back out, he looked to his left and saw the locker that once belonged to Merrill Kelly, his friend and longtime teammate who was dealt to the Rangers just prior to the deadline.
It was empty, the name tag removed. It was yet another reminder of just how much was now different.
“To not see his nameplate there was a little strange,” Gallen said on Monday before the Diamondbacks downed the Padres, 6-2, to open the homestand. “He sits diagonal, sat diagonally from me on the plane, so a little weird, just kind of those things.
“He's become one of my really good friends, especially in baseball. We spent a lot of time off the field together, mainly playing a lot of golf, getting dinners here and there. There was a lot of nostalgia the last week or so. A lot of … if it's the last golf, if it's the last dinner, things like that.”
There were reminders of the changes on the opposite side of the clubhouse, with the lockers of Eugenio Suárez and Randal Grichuk empty. Newly acquired first baseman Tyler Locklear was given Josh Naylor’s locker next to Grichuk.
Kelly’s locker was filled Monday by Andrew Hoffmann, who came over from the Royals in the Grichuk trade and was called up when Kevin Ginkel was placed on the injured list earlier in the day.
“We left, we were a team,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “We came back, and we're not [the same].”
But there are still games left to be played -- 49 after Monday. And while the Diamondbacks’ postseason odds have diminished greatly, there are still things to play for -- namely, one another.
“I just don't think you can, as a player, view this as a wasted year, or like wasted games now,” outfielder Corbin Carroll said. “There's still plenty of season left. There's just so much opportunity right now, especially for young players, to establish themselves.
“The things that we do for the rest of this year are going to carry forward into 2026. And to see some of those things trend the right way in a season where they haven't so far, that's going to be important.”
Lovullo welcomed Locklear to the team over the weekend in West Sacramento. On Monday, he did likewise with Hoffmann on Monday. A clubhouse attendant then showed Hoffmann how to find his way to the field from the clubhouse.
There will be a lot of introductions and orientations that happen over the next two months as some of the younger players find their way to the big leagues.
Carroll, who experienced something similar when he was called up to the Majors for the first time in August 2022 and was welcomed by veterans at the time. Now the tables are turned, and he’ll be the one lending his guidance.
“These are really guys that we're hoping become staples on this team,” Carroll said. “Obviously, there can be more of an emphasis on development in the Minor Leagues, and up here, it's all about winning.
“So I think that just keeping the No. 1 thing, doing the small things right, and putting the team first and putting the cost of the win above your personal success, I think all those things come into play.”