Connect with us

Sports

MLB pitcher picks Diamondback over Padres due to California’s tax rates

Published

on

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Merrill Kelly will once again be wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform when the 2026 regular season gets underway. 

Kelly, who entered the free agent market after pitching in 10 games with the Texas Rangers in 2025, agreed to a deal to return to the Diamondbacks.

Kelly spent the first seven years of his professional career with the Diamondbacks but revealed that he received an offer from the San Diego Padres this offseason. Kelly said his decision to turn down the Padres during free agency centered on California’s higher income tax rate compared to Arizona’s.

Advertisement

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Merrill Kelly throws a pitch

Merrill Kelly (23) of the Texas Rangers pitches during a game against the Miami Marlins at Globe Life Field on Sept. 21, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Gunnar Word/Texas Rangers/Getty Images)

Kelly agreed to a two-year contract worth an estimated $40 million with the Diamondbacks, according to ESPN. Although the Padres offered a comparable deal at three years instead of two, California’s 13% tax rate on income above $1 million proved a key difference.

“I don’t think it’s any secret on how much money you get taken out of your pocket when you go to California,” the right-hander told “Foul Territory.”

Kelly also has deep ties to Arizona, where he attended high school and played college baseball at Arizona State. He said finding a way back to Arizona “was always the priority.”

Advertisement
Merrill Kelly looks on before a game

Merrill Kelly (29) of the Arizona Diamondbacks looks on before Game Six of the Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 23, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

While Kelly said he is fond of San Diego, he was unwilling to sacrifice a significant portion of his salary to taxes. “I love San Diego,” Kelly said. “It’s just, like I said, they take too much money out of my pocket, man. The taxes over there are a different level.

“We had my numbers guy run the numbers, and it just made more sense to come home.”

Merrill Kelly looks on

Merrill Kelly (23) of the Texas Rangers looks on during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Globe Life Field on Aug. 8, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Bailey Orr/Texas Rangers/Getty Images)

Arizona’s state income tax rate is roughly 2.5%. Kelly also joked that he prefers the desert landscape to San Diego’s coastal setting.

“It worked out best for us because that was honestly our second choice,” Kelly said. “It was between here and San Diego going into the offseason. San Diego was really the only place that, if we did go somewhere, that was probably high on our list if we weren’t in Arizona. It’s like, ‘All right, let’s just hop over and take a short, six-hour drive to San Diego.’

Advertisement

“But, yeah, the desert is home. I guess we’re not ocean people.”

In a statement to The California Post, the Padres said the team does “not comment on contract negotiations.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Acquired by the Rangers in July 2025, Kelly went 12-9 while splitting the season between Texas and Arizona.

Advertisement

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Related Article

2026 MLB Free Agent Signings, Trades: Dodgers Sign Pitcher to $6.5M Pact

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sports

How to correctly shift your weight during the backswing

Published

on

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Women’s college basketball players come to rescue after sinkhole swallows 2 cars

Published

on

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A pair of college basketball players jumped into action after two vehicles were engulfed Tuesday when a sudden sinkhole opened up beneath them in Nebraska.

Sitting at a red light, a red SUV and a gray pickup truck were waiting to go until both fell instantly as the road collapsed.

It is unclear what led to the road collapse.

It is unclear what led to the road collapse. (UNO Public Safety/TMX)

The driver of the pickup truck almost immediately opened his door, but the status of the driver in the SUV was not known.

Advertisement

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM 

Seeing the danger, a purple car at the four-way stop pulled up onto the nearby sidewalk to assist in getting the driver of the SUV out safely. Out of the purple car came Esra Kurban and Olivia Borsutzki, members of the University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball team.

“I thought it was an accident, and then I saw a man next to the car and was like, ‘Oh, the cars are actually in the ground,’” Borsutzki told Fox News Digital.

Esra Kurban, Olivia Borsutzki pose

(Left) University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball player Esra Kurban. (Right) University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball player Olivia Borsutzki. (Courtesy of Omaha Athletics)

For both players, there was no second-guessing.

Advertisement

“I pulled over and was like, ‘We need to help,’” Borsutzki added.

“Nobody was helping. People had their cell phones out, driving past, they didn’t do anything. I was like, ‘Esra, we gotta do something. I don’t know what we’re doing, but we gotta do something.’”

Borsutzki said the person in the SUV was “panicking,” but she grabbed him by his belt to get him out of the sinkhole.

Dust could be seen as the vehicles fell into the pavement.

Dust could be seen as the vehicles fell into the pavement. (UNO Public Safety/TMX)

Kurban added, “I didn’t even know a road could go down. I was shocked to see it. But fortunately, everything turned out to be fine after that.”

Advertisement

Neither driver was hurt, police said.

“We are grateful to them for jumping into action and quickly providing help,” Officer Sarah Martier, an Omaha police spokesperson, said in a statement of the bystanders.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The next day, the Lady Mavericks became the only NBA, WNBA or Division I men’s or women’s team in the last 15 years to have one player with at least 40 points, another with at least 30 and another with 20 or more rebounds in the same game in their 85-74 win over Oral Roberts.

Advertisement

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Related Article

Team USA legend Mike Eruzione reacts to backlash of Olympic gold team: 'Shut up and enjoy what they did'

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Sports

Megyn Kelly speculates why Savannah Guthrie appears with makeup and “puffy red eyes” in her renewed plea for Nancy Guthrie

Published

on

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly reacted to Savannah Guthrie’s latest plea for her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie. The Today host’s 84-year-old mother has been missing since February 1, and the law enforcement agencies have been investigating the case as a kidnapping. Meanwhile, Nancy Guthrie’s family posted several videos urging people to help find her.

On February 24, Savannah Guthrie announced a $1 million family reward in exchange for information leading to her mother’s recovery. On Friday, the media personality reshared a clip from her Tuesday plea video and reminded people that they could be anonymous while sharing tips.

Megyn Kelly, who has actively discussed the developments in the Nancy Guthrie case, discussed Savannah Guthrie’s latest video with former FBI agents Jim Fitzgerald and Maureen O’Connell. Kelly pointed out that Savannah Guthrie, in her first few videos, appeared without makeup and with puffy eyes. She suggested that the change might be a calculated move to deliver an impactful message.

“I think it’s somewhat of a sign of resilience that she managed to get any makeup on at all and her jacket on… I do think the puffy red eyes are an intentional choice because I’m sure they were authentic, and they could have been resolved had she really wanted to do that for a camera. But she probably made the choice to show people the pain she’s in,” Kelly stated.

youtube-cover

The podcaster said that there was no downside in telegraphing her true emotions to the public and the suspected kidnapper. Megyn Kelly asked Jim Fitzgerald whether, in his opinion, the Today host’s appearance and the video’s style were premeditated and produced after consultation with the FBI.

The former FBI agent said that in his profiling career, he had advised people how to appear before cameras while putting on a message. Fitzgerald said that while he had personally never gotten into the makeup category, he opined that someone might have advised it.

“So yeah, this is well coordinated… I’m certainly assuming there are profilers, behavioralists on the scene, certainly in touch with the family. They’re talking to them. They’re helping them put the words together. They don’t want to offend the person. They don’t want to challenge the person.”


Megyn Kelly suspects that if Savannah Guthrie drops any major detail in her plea for Nancy Guthrie

“There’s less hope in the family…” @willgeddes, @eoneill, and James Hamilton on new Savannah Guthrie video revealing Nancy was ‘taken from her bed’ and upping reward to $1 million.

Advertisement

In her latest video message, Savannah Guthrie said that 24 days had passed since Nancy Guthrie was “taken in the dark of night from her bed.” Megyn Kelly discussed the plea video in her Tuesday podcast and stressed the NBC host’s words. Kelly remarked that whether Savannah Guthrie intended to or not, she had made a “little news.”

Pointing to the “taken…from her bed” remark, Megyn Kelly suspected:

“No one has ever said that before. In fact, the sheriff said it early on and then took it back and said… But there it is, straight from Savannah Guthrie herself. That’s news.”

Many on the internet raised suspicions about Nancy Guthrie’s other daughter, Annie, and her husband, Tommaso, since they were the last people with whom she spent time before she went missing.

In her recent plea, Savannah Guthrie mentioned Annie when she said, “Hope against hope. As my sister says, ‘we are blowing on the embers of hope.’” Megyn Kelly frowned upon the mention of Annie in the message.

Advertisement

“Given all the focus on the sister and, more accurately, the sister’s husband. To me, that’s a way of endorsing the sister and reminding us they still believe in her and probably in Tommaso too. I don’t think you mentioned the sister unless you’re looking to rehabilitate them both,” Kelly said.


Meanwhile, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has cleared Nancy Guthrie’s family members as suspects in the case.