When Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly first was told he needed surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, the diagnosis did not concern him, not the way it might other pitchers.

Kelly’s arm had been swollen and changing colors. He had a blood clot in his shoulder. He had gone through shock and fear about what was going on with his body. He just didn’t want it to happen again. At that point, he said, baseball was “kind of secondary.”

Kelly is now a week removed from the surgery, a procedure in which the first rib under the shoulder is removed to create room for improved blood flow. He feels better — both physically and mentally — and has turned his focus back toward his profession.

“With the way I feel just in this very short time and talking to the surgeon who did my surgery, he doesn’t see why there would be any reason moving forward that I should have any issues or not be ready for next year,” Kelly said. “That’s the positive thing.”

When he went down, Kelly had been one of the Diamondbacks’ more reliable starters to open the season. Through five starts, Kelly had a 2.59 ERA in 31? innings and had averaged less than a runner an inning allowed.

Unlike Tommy John surgery, thoracic outlet is less commonplace and thus more unknown, and it seems to have a more checkered success rate.

But Kelly is optimistic. He has done his own research. He has heard encouraging reports from medical experts. And he has had conversations with other pitchers who have had the procedure, including Baltimore Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb and Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Chris Archer. Kelly came up alongside both in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

Kelly’s issue was vascular, not neurogenic, meaning it was an issue with blood flow rather than nerves. Kelly said Cobb had the same issue and told him he has not had any problems since.

“That’s why talking to Alex really put my mind at ease,” Kelly said.

Kelly said it has been something of a whirlwind few weeks for him. He was scratched from his scheduled start Aug. 24, the day when he determined, conclusively, that something was seriously wrong with his shoulder. He had an ultrasound the next day in which a blood clot was found.

“Hearing I had a blood clot in my shoulder, out of this whole experience, was by far the scariest part,” he said. “At 31 years old, you aren’t expecting to hear that news.”

He wound up traveling to Dallas, where vascular surgeon Dr. Gregory Pearl performed the procedure. Kelly said he was shown the rib after the procedure — he said if he makes a ‘C’ shape with his index finger and thumb, the rib is roughly that size — and was told he could take it with him if he wanted. He left it behind.

“It’s not really something I want to put on my mantel and look at all the time,” he said. “It looks kind of weird. It was in some weird solution that kind of freaked me out a little bit. It was cool that I got to see it. But that’s something I want to move on from.”

Based on comments last week from Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen, it does not appear the procedure will stand in the way of the club picking up his $4.25 million team option for next season.

Kelly said he was told he could begin throwing by late-November or early-December and that he should be ready to go by spring training. He said he is curious to see how it feels to pick up a baseball and throw again, but he does not plan on rushing back.

“If this was going to happen, I feel like it happened at the right time, that I have plenty of time to do that and I just got to trust the process of getting back to that point and not looking too far ahead and on how that’s going to feel,” Kely said. “I’m just trying to take it one day at a time and hopefully when I do pick up that baseball for the first time, it feels good.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

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