The Nationals have released first baseman Matt Mervis, per Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com. He’d signed a minor league deal over the winter, spent spring training with the Nats, and opened the season with their Triple-A club in Rochester.
Mervis appeared in only one game with Washington’s top minor league affiliate prior to being released, going 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout. He was 3-for-12 with a pair of walks and strikeouts in 14 official spring plate appearances. He went 3-for-11 with a pair of doubles for Israel during the World Baseball Classic.
The Nationals added Mervis as first base depth back in December, but since signing him they acquired first base prospect Abimelec Ortiz from the Rangers as part of their return for MacKenzie Gore and more recently brought Curtis Mead over from the White Sox, giving them another first base option on the MLB roster and pushing Andres Chaparro down to Rochester. The need for further depth was lessened, as was Mervis’ role on the Rochester roster, and the two sides have now parted ways.
Mervis has logged big league time in each of the past three seasons, suiting up for both the Cubs and Marlins. He’s routinely clobbered Triple-A pitching, slashing a combined .264/.359/.522 with 71 long balls in 1318 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have been an issue his past few trips through Triple-A, however, and they’ve been an insurmountable obstacle for Mervis in the majors. Through 261 big league plate appearances, Mervis has slashed .165/.238/.322 with a huge 34.5% strikeout rate. Among the 521 players who tallied at least 250 plate appearances from 2023-25, Mervis ranked 502nd with a 66.9% overall contact rate and 506th with a 76.7% contact rate on pitches within the strike zone.
Mervis is now free to sign with any club seeking some first base depth and /or a left-handed power hitter to stash in Triple-A. Speculatively speaking, he also has a profile that we’ve seen command interest overseas in the past, though there’s no indication that’s a possibility for the 27-year-old slugger (28 later this month).
Time for Mervis to head to Asia and spend the next couple years working on reducing that gaudy K rate. Try again to hook up with an MLB team for 2028.
It definitely is more intriguing to players now then it used to be considering guys are getting nice deals coming back over (mostly pitchers).
Yup, time to mash in either the NPB or KBO. Put up some good crooked numbers and gwt and MLB contract in a few years.
Mervis the Pervis
Second!
Thought he had a lot of potential at one time. Never really got a shot with the Cubs but he seems unwilling, Or Unable to shorten his swing a bit to hit the ball more often so until he does he’ll forever be a whiff king I guess. Oh well.
Mervis could be a star in the KBO. Here he is nothing more than minor league filler
Tastes great less filler
Nervous Mervis in the box, already lookin’ shook,
Bat shakin’ in his hands, he forgot the scouting book,
Fastball down the middle—didn’t even think to swing,
Mercifully made redundant—couldn’t hit a damn thing.
I didn’t know he was still playing TBH
M*A*S*H Mervis playing in Korea seems too perfect.
Good luck in Japan, Mexico, or Korea.