The Blue Jays announced they’ve acquired infielder Whit Merrifield from the Royals, with right-hander Max Castillo and minor league infielder Samad Taylor going to Kansas City,
The deal officially ends a run of more than a decade in the Kansas City organization for Merrifield, who entered pro ball as a 2010 draftee. He reached the big leagues in 2016 and had cemented himself as a regular by the following season. He’d spent the next few seasons as a top-of-the-order presence and consistently productive contact hitter. Merrifield twice led the American League in steals, twice more led the league in hits and was selected to a pair of All-Star Games. As recently as last season, he paced the circuit in doubles and swiped 40 bags, although his overall offensive output had begun to dip.
Merrifield’s production has continued to fall this year, as he’s amidst the worst offensive season of his career. He’s hitting .240/.290/.352 through 420 plate appearances, although that’s largely a reflection of a dismal April in which he hit .141/.190/.179. From May 1 onwards, he has a roughly league average .266/.315/.397 mark, striking out in only 14.9% of his plate appearances. He’s connected on just six home runs, but Merrifield brings a high-contact bat to the Jays lineup.
The 33-year-old is also a versatile defensive option capable of covering either of second base or in corner outfield. Public defensive metrics have been mixed on his performance at the keystone so far this season, but he’s typically a highly-regarded defender there. Santiago Espinal has had a nice season overall as the Jays primary second baseman, but he slumped offensively in July. Merrifield adds some cover there while also adding some extra right-handed depth to a bench that currently skews left-handed.
The Jays are a bit of a surprising destination for Merrifield, who was placed on the restricted list during a recent series while still with K.C. That indicates he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time — and was thus ineligible to cross the border — but Merrifield indicated he was open to receiving the vaccine to contribute to a playoff contender. General manager Ross Atkins declined to comment when asked about Merrifield’s vaccination status this evening (via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet), but it’s difficult to imagine Toronto topping the trade market if they weren’t confident he’d be available for half their games.
Merrifield is under contract for another season and a half. He and the Royals agreed to a restructured deal just before Opening Day. He’s making $7MM this season, around $2.5MM of which is still to be paid out. He’ll receive a $6.75MM figure next season, and he’s due a $500K buyout on an $18MM mutual option for 2024. That’s a more than reasonable tab for the Jays if they believe Merrifield has put his rough April behind him.
Kansas City has resisted trade overtures on Merrifield for years, holding onto him throughout their recent rebuild. Amidst another down season and with his window of club control falling, however, president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and his staff finally made him available this summer. In exchange, they bring back a pair of young players with extended windows of club control who could contribute to the major league team shortly.
Castillo has already gotten to the big leagues, making his debut in mid-June. The 23-year-old righty has a 3.05 ERA through his first 20 2/3 frames, primarily working as a multi-inning option out of the bullpen. He’s punched out 24.7% of batters faced, induced grounders on more than half his batted balls, and only walked 6.2% of opponents. The Venezuela native has averaged around 93 MPH on his fastball and leaned heavily on his changeup during his limited big league time.
Baseball America recently named Castillo the #14 prospect in the Jays farm system, praising his feel for pitching and crediting him with average command. The outlet suggests his lack of a true plus offering is likely to relegate him to a back-of-the-rotation or swing role, but there’s still value in that kind of arm while he’s affordable. Castillo won’t reach arbitration-eligibility until 2025 at the earliest, and he still has all three minor league option years remaining. He gives the Jays an affordable rotation depth option for the coming seasons.
Taylor, 24, is an upper minors infielder. A former tenth-round pick, he’s played his way to Triple-A and had a decent season in Buffalo. Through 280 plate appearances, the righty-hitting second baseman owns a .258/.337/.426 line with nine home runs and 23 stolen bases. BA slotted Taylor 23rd in the Toronto farm system, writing that he could be a utility type in the big leagues. He’ll be eligible for the Rule 5 draft if he’s not added to the 40-man roster at the end of the season.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported the Royals were trading Merrifield, while Jon Heyman of the New York Post was first to report the Jays were the acquiring team. Feinsand was first with the return.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
wow that was unexpected
Took the words out of my mouth
Jays need LH so of course they pick up a RH. Two hit whit is a gamer but not excatly the fit the jays needed. Be hilarious if he refuses to get the shot.
Considering Springer is having major elbow problems and tapia isn’t the best in CF he makes perfect sense. Plus jays new manger loves the run game
exactly.aybe they need a LH bat but they need someone who can play cf since springer may have to dh for a while.
Man watching springer just walk to the plate hurt me. The guys elbow looks like it’s broken
Nobody cares.
Considering we need a CF, a guy who has 49 innings in CF this year with terrible defensive metrics there (and didn’t play an inning in CF last year and has literally never played more in center than on the corners) makes sense? Huh?
He’s a solid pinch runner but can’t replace Zimmer on defense.
If they acquired whit to play CF that’s a even bigger fail lol. He’s not a CF but neither is Springer and they signed him for CF money.
All signs, including statements by the team broadcasters, indicate Whit is going to play CF. I’d rather keep running Tapia out there.
Springer is a below average center fielder, but he doesn’t hurt you much out there. Tapia hurts you a lot more. Zimmer is the only guy on the roster who’s above average out there, so it seems we’ll be stuck with him and his absurd levels of ineptitude with a bat.
Might be time to try Teoscar Hernandez in CF again, he looked okayish there a few years ago. Hate to mess with him midseason though.
How much longer do KC fans have to suffer with 20% Moore as the GM?
What?
Is Merrifield vaccinated…?
No he isn’t
If not he had to of agreed to get vaccinated or else the blue jays wouldn’t have traded for him
Or you would’ve expected them to ask him before the trade…
No. Players on Camadian teams are not required to be vaccinated. However players coming into Canada with an American team is required.
Merrifield would not even be able to go to Canada without being vaccinated. Players coming into the US from Canada are also required to be vaccinated.
It doesn’t matter what team you play for.
If you’re not vaxxed you can’t cross the border no matter what side you’re on.
No
Really standing up for his principals.
He isn’t good enough anymore to pretend he’s standing for something, he’s about to enter free agency as an average utility player and needs to make some better economic decisions.
He’s not about to enter FA but uhh, ok.
Yes he is. The jays are going to decline the option for next year. Do some research for goodness sake.
He’ll be getting a head start on the upcoming road trips, providing scouting for the local bars and restaurants.
He got the jab.
How long ago and which ones? You’re considered “vaccinated” 14 days after your second Moderna or Pfizer does or after your first J&J dose.
Considering the Royals series in Toronto was only just over two weeks ago, he almost can’t possibly be fully vaccinated yet. If he said he’d consider vaccination for a contender at that time, it means he hadn’t had his first shot yet.
I suppose there’s the chance that he was vaccinated all along but felt like taking a series off so he lied about it, but who’d want that guy?
He only needs one shot as J & j is recognized in Canada.
You cannot get the J&J vaccine as your primary COVID vaccination in the US. You can as a booster.
If he got the J&J shot upon being traded, he’ll still have to miss around 4 home games before he’s considered vaccinated, won’t he?
Canada recognizes it as a primary so that should be all he needs
But it’s still not recognized until 14 days after the shot, since it takes a while to become effective, right?
l knew it!
Wow , gonna crush the Yankees after this
Can he pitch?
Guess he’s getting the shot
Good for Whitt.
Didn’t see that one coming, I guess he’s getting vaxxed.
Always liked him and I’m glad we got him but I wish we’d get a starter lol
And let the vaccination convo begin in 3,2,1…
He not vaxxed though
Woah
Unvaccinated
Isn’t he unvaxxed?
Wow!! Would have thought he was Royal for life
Vaccination incoming!
Braves so are sending a message they don’t care about winning the division.
Is he going to get vaxxed now?
He said he would if he played for a contender.
Time to take one for the team.
Actually 2!
Just not his “current” team. Let KC play short handed. Great team player.
The Royals fascination with keeping Whit the past 5 years has been baffling to me
Really always been a moronic franchise who never deserved a ring. They could have gotten a bounty for him 2 years ago.
Last time I checked the a’s haven’t won jack crap in 3 decades
Never deserved a ring? Based on what?
This moves Springer to strict DH duties. Sorry Kirk needs to pop a squat every game now to play
cool a pinchrunner
WHATS THE PRICE!
What is the delay til play with the vacci?
Good pick up for Toronto.
BABIP is 60 points off his career avg but hard hit % and Exit Velo are still up to his career standards
The Blue Jays have acquired Merrifield, who will be sent by way of the closest local pharmacy for a necessary shot I presume…
Toronto is on the road now, so he doesn’t have to get vaccinated yet
Still needs to wait 14 days so he will miss some home games and some money to start
It was my impression he had to wait 14 days also but they played him right away. I guess it’s OK when the Jays want to win ballgames, but there is a double standard. The Jays don’t budge for opposing teams players. I hope they choke down the stretch.
Good player but they shoulda moved him 2 or 3 years ago.Toronto has 75 RH hitters
Thank you for the years of making watching games fun. On a losing franchise, he would chase streaks and league leaders. Merrifield, enjoy being able to contend. Get you what you deserve!
Suggest he’ll be back with the organization when he retires.
The rebuild has officially failed.
That’s a tough player to see go as a Royals fan. Great player for many years. Very unpaid for his output.
He’s from San Fran. That attitude totally expected.
Whit is from South Carolina.
For the people talking about the vax situation with him: he said he’d get it if he was going to be traded to a contender, also the Jays are on the road for the next 9 games so there should be no issue with him playing in Canada.
Lmao so if you win he’ll conform. Why even fight it to begin with if that’s your stance
Huh??
This makes zero sense to me??
So 6 weeks before he can play?
Assuming he got the first shot today, then he can get the 2nd in the primary series of doses in 3 weeks if Pfizer and 4 weeks if Moderna. J&J is only available as a booster shot in the US, so that is not an option for him.
2 weeks after the 2nd shot he is considered fully vaccinated and can travel to Canada.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html#:~:text=People%20ages%2012%20through%2064,after%20the%20first%20dose.
In the meantime he can play in the next 8 games that the Jays are playing on the road. He would then have to miss the next 6 games against the Guardians and Orioles that the Jays play at home. He could then play in the series against the Yankees and Red Sox on the road before finally being able to play at home for the Jays on August 26th against the Angels.
https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/schedule/2022-08
I have a feeling that he has already gotten the 1st vaccine. Guess we will find out on August 12th
Can one of you Toronto fans tell me a little about these prospects?
Castillo has potential to be a back of the rotation guy, or long man, good potential, samad taylor is a speedster, could be a good bench piece who can play every other day.
Samad Taylor is a little of Whit Merrifield. 2B/OF with lots of speed. No power early in his pro career. Went to Australian winter ball to play professionally after the ’20 minor league season was wiped out and came back and went on a bit of a power surge last year. Scouts don’t think it’ll translate into that much power at the majors. Cut down on the swing and miss this season and sacrificing some of that power for it. Still, he was a surprising guy to have been exposed to the rule 5 (even though it was canceled) this year. There’s a lot of utility in a guy who can play around the diamond with speed and a little bit of power.
Castillo is an org. guy who can be an up and down spot start type. Nothing flashy but a little bit valuable to the Jays this year. Didn’t look out of his element in the majors. Decent command of unspectacular stuff.
No lights-out pitcher (Bass is good, though) and no left-handed bat. But they added another right-handed bat… Is Whit playing CF and RF to give Springer and Teoscar more DH days? Displacing Espinal at 2B?
And just when i was liking the future AL champions deadline moves
Why trade away Castillo? So atupid
I feel like Max helps the current team more than Whitt…..so this makes little sense. Also Biggio and Espinal have been better than Merrifield this year. So really he was only brought on as a backup CF?
Reeellllaaaxxxx. Whit will definitely get vaccinated. He might be an idiot, but he definitely won’t give up millions to sit.
Does he still have his Ironman streak? Doubt he plays everyday in TOR
It makes sense. We picked up several late inning relievers already, many pitching as good or better then Castillo this year. While it would be nice to keep Castillo as well, it’s clear Springer’s injury is worse then the Jays have led on, so we needed to pick up another outfielder better than Zimmer to help out in case Springer has to miss serious time down the stretch. A good depth pick up for the cost
He said he’d get vaxed if he went to contender. This really isn’t much of a surprise. Who know about these two young guys? The pitcher looks more promising at first glance.
I genuinely wonder what angry old people would be yelling/fuming about constantly if San Francisco didn’t exist.
Lol most people not in the area, old or young, couldn’t care less…
About what?
Oakland
These deadline pickups are a joke, and don’t show any signs of a team trying to win. Merrifield, Pop, Bass and Mitch White? That’s our additions to the team for a series run? Are we really trying to win? Our deadline pickups last year were terrible also, meanwhile every single team in the playoff mix made substantial upgrades to the team, we added bench players and 6th or 7th innings relievers who will get smoked in the playoffs. I said it before I’m officially on the bandwagon to get Atkins and Shapiro out. This is the best group of young talent the Jays have produced in a long time, but like any team you need to add from outside to help your team reach the next level, and we haven’t done that. Our management seems so afraid to trade anyone, or tinker with the roster at all, they prefer to add depth pieces that add a win or 2 in regular season but ride the bench in the playoffs. I don’t feel any better about our pen, we still don’t have a power LH bat and our rotation is suspect. What are we doing here?
Our deadline pick ups last year were terrible too? Just cause Berrios has had a bit of a rough year he’s still a solid mid rotation pitcher that I expect will have some good years for us. Pitching is always hard to pick up in the off season and the Jays always have to overpay in free ageny. We got the guy who was considered probably the biggest starting pitcher prize last year at the trade deadline and you think we did terrible?
Who did you think we were gonna get, Juan Soto? Did you see what the Padres gave up to get him? Not to mention he’s gonna go to free agency and not re-sign before hand
Why would Soto come to Toronto? Silly question, I expected us to do something, Berrios is a number 3 starter at best, I didn’t see him last year as a huge upgrade or someone who was gonna win us a game, maybe keep us in a game at best. We added nobody significant last year, and nobody this year.
What did I expect? I dunno maybe Iglesias, maybe go after Lopez, or Mahle, even Happ, or any lefty that can hit would be great, we added bench players, if that’s not clear I dunno what you looking at, did the players we just added put us in line with the Yankees? Astros? Dodgers or Padres? No, so therefore we added noone important. Where does Merrifield play? Does Mitch White win us a playoff game? Does Bass hold down the 8th inning in the playoffs? Do any of these players have any experience in the playoffs or know what a alds or world series game feels like? we marginally improved our team here. Manoah and Gausman(who tails off late in the year) are the only 2 I trust in the playoffs to start a game, that didn’t change today, every other team in the playoff mix made substantial upgrades even when they already had more depth then us.
I’ll take “Trades that make for the wildest comment sections” for $500, Alex.
People really haven’t had a chance yet to share their strong opinions about vaccines, whether pro or con. Luckily we’re all dying to know and this is the perfect time and place for it. Otherwise we might have to suffer some baseball analysis on a baseball site and who wants that?
Not one mention about the Jays losing Max Castillo? He’s actually a decent pitcher who throws hard…. a little unpolished, but i think KC did well here
Imagine if the antivaxxers were around during Polio. How many people would have to be in wheel chairs before the spell was broken? All this talk about 1% death rate being scoffed at would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. I guess the same people never wear seatbelts because there’s definitely less than 1% chance your in an accident. Also solely looking at the death rates ignores long term detrimental effects but don’t let that stop you from your daily conspiratorial kook aid.
The irony is a lot of the things they probably complain about occur less than 1% of the time, too. Late-term abortions, for instance. CRT. The list goes on.
In any event, you can be sure that when a real nasty pandemic hits, they’re definitely going to screw the rest of us over via some warped notion of freedom. Because there’s always money to be made in pushing propaganda, conspiracy theories, and general outrage to those seeking or susceptible to it.. The damage to society as a whole is irrelevant, even if that damage would include a mass loss of life.
In terms of long term detrimental effects, according to HHS, 4.8 million people in the US are on permanent disability from the effects of COVID and long COVID under Section 504 and Section 1557 of the ADA.
HHS estimates that 7.1-7.5 million people total have left the workforce due to long COVID symptoms. Outside of the Civil War, it’s the largest depletion of the workforce in US history.
HHS says through June 2022, 23 million people that have had COVID have been diagnosed with long COVID symptoms 3 or more months after they no longer tested positive for the disease. That is over 25%. 18 million have continued to have long COVID symptoms 6 or more months after no longer testing positive for the disease. About 20%.
The Polio vaccine actually worked. Polio is very stable whereas covid mutants quickly and the vaccination is too narrowly targeted. Maybe read up on the whole Polio thing, it makes for quite an interesting comparison to whats happened today.
I don’t believe he’s vaccinated
Who’s spot will Merrifield take?
Springers, he’s wincing every time he throws hard or swings hard. Clear the guy needs some more time off or maybe even surgery in the off season. Tapia is great but he’s not a CF. Plus Hernandez, Gurriel and Tapia aren’t gonna play everyday if Springer has to miss serious time. Yeah we wanted a left handed bat, but we weren’t gonna give up major prospects for outfield depth. So we added three sub 3.00 ERA BP guys, and sent one out to get much needed insurance in the OF. We couldn’t let Zimmer who can only get on base if he’s hit by a pitch be our back up for Springer down the stretch. This was a needed pick up. Ofc I wish we also got a starter as well, but it wasn’t in the cards without trading Moreno which we didn’t want to do
Idiot American anti-vaxxers please just shut up. You probably think Trump is intelligent, too.
More pertinent question is how long ago did Whit get vaxxed? I thought you needed to have it for at least two weeks in order to cross the border. Jays front office would know all this, though. Very good addition, except that it is another RH hitter. He replaces Springer on defence. George moves to DH due to elbow issues.
So freaking awesome. Got to mute 15 more troglodytes after just one thread. My feed on MLBTR just gained 30-40 points of IQ.
19 now. Please keep it up. Maybe I can get to 25 muted in one thread. Freaking awesome.
22. Freaking 22 in one thread. That is outstanding.
We call this selling loooooooooowwww.
I’d have to say Max Castillo would’ve done a lot more to help the Blue Jays win this year than Merrifield. Jays needed relief help and emergency rotation depth, so they traded a swingman who’d been pitching well and now have less of their need than they started with. In return, they got a pinch runner who can’t play a decent CF or any other position of need, nor hit.
Throwing in a prospect and taking on salary, and the fact that Castillo has so many more years of control, and Merrifield being a declining speed guy who 33, adds insult to severe injury. Utterly bizarre trade, all I can think is Ross Atkins woke up in a daze believing it’s the year 2018.
I don’t get it All these years the Royals resisted trading him while they were in a rebuild and he was doing well. So now that they are allegedly coming out of that rebuild, they go ahead and sell low on Whit, who is having a very down year. I don’t get it.
Surprised since KC appeared to keep Merrifield around until retirement lol.
so this chat has been taken over by wingnut anti-vaxxers and not too much on the actual trade ?
Mute them. It clears up so much of the feed for people that actually want to talk baseball and have an intelligent take on it.
Threads like this are a godsend, because all the troglodytes come out from under their rocks to spew their special brand of stupidity and makes it so easy to recognize them.
born again christian turns out to be massive hypocrite, in it for the money, shocker.
so with that, it makes all of them, pretty much.
just more proof that anything a christian accuses others of, is actually a confession.
if whit has joined his fellow groomers, i mean christians, whining about sex crimes, might wanna check him before he crosses the border, canada.
his ilk tend to molest millions of kids a year, and right now, we have several of them in congress (matt gaetz, ted cruz, marco rubio, among others).
Say it ain’t so Whit!
Best move Jays made was moving on from Montoyo. And it’s showing.
Nice for depth bout it. Didn’t give up great prospects but they could be solid pieces. Good haul and salary dump for KC.
Great trade!
The guy is a baseball machine and a great teammate.
He is gonna rake with Jays.
The vaccination clearly was never an issue for him.
Insanely creepy comments being posted here as well. !
I guess people don’t have a problem with all of the non American players who need to be vaxed to play in the US. Get a grip