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Padres Activate Jackson Merrill From Concussion IL

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Center fielder Jackson Merrill has been activated from the concussion-related IL, according to an announcement by the Padres. Outfielder Brandon Lockridge was optioned to the minors in a corresponding move.

Merrill initially went on the shelf last week after he was struck by a hard tag from Ketel Marte when trying to steal second base. It was his second trip to the injured list of the year after missing a month due a hamstring strain, but this one fortunately ended up only requiring a minimal absence. Merrill is back just one week after being shelved thanks to the nature of the concussion-related IL, which comes with a minimum stay of just seven days to encourage players and clubs to be more proactive with its usage.

When healthy, Merrill has more or less followed up his sensational rookie season with an exact replica. Across 44 games this year, he’s slashed .304/.349/.474 with a wRC+ of 131. He’s striking out a bit more than last year (22.0%) but is also walking more frequently (6.5%) to go with his five homers and ten doubles. Merrill’s return to action should provide a huge boost to a Padres team that has scuffled a bit while relying on Tyler Wade and Bryce Johnson to handle center field in his absence. While they managed to score more than 4.5 runs per game during Merrill’s time away from the club, they dropped three of four in a crucial series against the Dodgers and have lost four of their last six games overall.

That may seem like a fairly minor skid, but in a hotly contested NL playoff picture it was enough to put them half a game out of the final Wild Card spot and five games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. With trade season just around the corner, the next few weeks of play will be crucial for clubs on the bubble of playoff contention like San Diego. Adding Merrill back to the middle of the lineup alongside Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado should go a long way to bolster the offense enough to help it carry a beleaguered pitching staff, to say nothing of what Merrill’s strong glove in center field could do for the Padres’ run prevention after they allowed 30 runs in seven games last week.

Departing the roster to make room for Merrill is Lockridge. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with San Diego last season and has made it into 59 total games, though he’s slashed a lackluster .210/.248/.280 (50 wRC+) to this point in his MLB career. He’s primarily been used as a defensive replacement and pinch runner thanks to his impressive speed, and in that role he’s done quite well with a 10-for-11 record on the basepaths and +3 career Outs Above Average in the outfield. He’ll head back to Triple-A and serve as depth for the Padres’ bench moving forward.

Padres Place Jackson Merrill On Concussion IL, Select Trenton Brooks

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The Padres officially announced that outfielder Jackson Merrill has been placed on the seven-day injured list for concussion-related issues.  Infielder/outfielder Trenton Brooks will join the roster in Merrill’s place, as San Diego selected Brooks’ contract from Triple-A.

The placement isn’t a surprise, as Merrill was shaken up and had to be removed from Saturday’s game after receiving a hard tag from Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte.  Merrill was attempting to steal second base in the seventh inning, and Marte’s tag hit Merrill right in the front of his helmet.  Merrill needed a few minutes to recover before leaving the field with team trainers.

It had already been decided that Merrill would sit out today’s game to undergo further examination, and it seems as though the Padres have opted to be safe and give Merrill at least the full week to recover.  As always with concussion symptoms, no real timeline exists for recovery, as Merrill could conceivably start feeling better as soon as tomorrow, or he might be sidelined for well beyond the seven-day minimum.

Merrill already missed a month of action due to a hamstring strain earlier this season, but when he has been able to play, he has continued the impressive form that made him the NL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2024.  Merrill is hitting .304/.349/.474 with five homers over 186 plate appearances this season, translating to a 132 wRC+ that narrowly tops the 130 wRC+ he posted over 593 PA in 2024.

Brandon Lockridge and Tyler Wade covered most of the workload in center field during Merrill’s previous IL stint, so that duo figures to handle things up the middle for the time being.  There’s no easy way for the Padres to truly replace Merrill, of course, and the outfield mix is also still missing Jason Heyward, who is on a minor league rehab assignment.

The left-handed hitting Brooks will try to help out as depth at first base and in left field.  The longtime minor league veteran finally made his big league debut last season at age 28, and Brooks appeared in 12 games for San Francisco (with a .361 OPS in 28 plate appearances) in his first taste of the majors.

Catching on with San Diego on a minors deal last winter, Brooks’ production at Triple-A El Paso has surpassed even his previous solid Triple-A numbers, as Brooks has a whopping .311/.411/.590 slash line and 14 homers over 270 PA for the Padres’ top affiliate.  Replicating anything close to that at the MLB level would be immensely helpful to the Padres, and for Brooks’ chances of sticking around in the Show.

West Notes: Arraez, Padres, Leiter, Tovar, Tellez

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It was a week ago tonight that Luis Arraez was carted off the field in Houston after he collided with Astros second baseman Mauricio Dubon during a play at first base.  Early concerns of a neck or jaw injury dissipated when Arraez was back in the Padres’ clubhouse later that night after a trip to the hospital, and though Arraez was placed on the concussion-related injured list, the three-time batting champ feels he will miss just the minimum seven days.

Arraez took part in a full workout with some other injured Padres players on the field today, and told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell that he is free of concussion symptoms.  Tuesday would mark the earliest that Arraez is eligible to be activated, and he is now just “waiting for the doctor, whatever he says” about a possible okay to resume playing.

As for San Diego’s other injured players, Jason Heyward might also be activated Tuesday, as was working out on the field and is also nearing the 10-day minimum date after his IL placement for knee inflammation.  Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Jackson Merrill and Brandon Lockridge (both out with hamstring injuries) are expected to take part in a live batting-practice session at the Padres’ spring camp on Monday, and Merrill was also feeling good enough to take part in today’s defensive workout.  Jake Cronenworth (rib fracture) is feeling good enough to take part in some light fielding drills, but Sanders notes that Cronenworth hasn’t yet attempted diving for balls.

With the weekend wrapping up, here are some more items from the NL and AL West divisions…

  • The Rangers activated Jack Leiter from the 15-day IL today, with right-hander Gerson Garabito heading to Triple-A in the corresponding move.  A blister issue had kept Leiter from pitching since April 2, and some rust was apparent, as Leiter allowed two earned runs (on four walks and two hits) over 3 1/3 innings in Texas’ 3-2 loss to the Giants.  Leiter tossed 76 pitches and was on a pitch count anyway, though obviously the Rangers would’ve preferred to see the former top prospect get a bit deeper into the game.  Leiter still has an impressive 2.03 ERA over 13 1/3 innings this season, and will continue in the rotation at least until some of the club’s other injured starters return to action.
  • Ezequiel Tovar was eligible to be activated off the Rockies’ 10-day injured list this weekend, but manager Bud Black told the Denver Post’s Jeff Saunders and other reporters that Tovar will need another 7-10 days of recovery time.  Tovar is dealing with a left hip contusion and hasn’t played since April 15, leaving the struggling Rockies short one of their few breakout players from the 2024 season.
  • Rowdy Tellez was a late scratch from the Mariners’ lineup today, as the slugger is apparently still feeling sore after being hit on the hand by a pitch in Saturday’s game.  X-rays were negative on Tellez’s hand, he told Shane Lantz of the Seattle Times and other reporters, so it appears to be a precautionary move on the Mariners’ part.  Seattle has an off-day on Monday, so Tellez will receive two full days off before his next attempt to play.

MLBTR Podcast: Vlad’s Massive Deal, Extensions for Merrill and Marte, And Quinn Priester Traded

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

  • Garrett Crochet’s Extension, Problems In Atlanta, And Other Early-Season Storylines – listen here
  • What We Learned From The Offseason – listen here
  • The Rays’ Stadium Deal Is Dead, Rangers’ Rotation Issues, And More! – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images

Padres Place Jackson Merrill On Injured List

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The Padres announced that they’ve placed Jackson Merrill on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 7, due to a right hamstring strain. Fellow outfielder Oscar González was recalled from Triple-A El Paso to take the active roster spot.

There’s no indication it’ll be an extended absence, but this will pause a fantastic start to Merrill’s sophomore season. He’s hitting .378 with a trio of home runs across 41 trips to the plate. Merrill signed a $135MM extension last week. That followed an excellent rookie year in which he hit .292/.326/.500 with 24 homers while playing strong defense in his first season as a center fielder.

Brandon Lockridge has drawn into the lineup for the past two days. That’s likely to continue, as he’s the only real center fielder on the active roster. The Padres have kept Fernando Tatis Jr. in right field. Jason Heyward could theoretically slide over from left on occasion but won’t play center regularly. González, who is in line for his team debut after signing an offseason minor league deal, is a corner outfielder. San Diego added him to the 40-man roster last week, presumably to keep him from opting out of that contract.

Jose Iglesias is alongside Lockridge and Tatis in the outfield tonight. He’ll start in left field against A’s southpaw Jeffrey Springs. It’ll be the first outfield work of Iglesias’ 13-year major league career. He has more than 8000 innings at shortstop and a decent amount of work at both second and third base.

Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the moves before the team announced them.

Padres Sign Jackson Merrill To Nine-Year Extension

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The Padres announced that they have signed star outfielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year contract extension that runs through 2034 with a club option for 2035. Reportedly, it guarantees the star $135MM. Merrill was previously slated to reach free agency after 2029, so this extends the club’s window of control by at least five years. The outfielder is represented by KHG Sports Management.

The salary breaks down as follows: $10MM signing bonus, $1MM in 2026, $6MM in ’27, $8MM in ’28, $10MM in ’29, $20MM annually between 2030-34. There are $30MM in plate appearance escalators that can push his salary earnings to $165MM. Each time Merrill gets to 500 plate appearances in a season, he adds $1MM to his future salaries for the 2030-2034 seasons. The deal can max out at $204MM and includes a $30MM club option for a tenth season that can be converted to a player option. The club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, while a top ten finish is also an escalator.

Merrill’s breakout was a stunningly impressive part of the 2024 season. It didn’t completely come out of nowhere, as Merrill was a first-round pick, selected 27th overall in 2021. He was one of the top prospects in baseball during his time in the minors. However, by the end of the 2023 season, his experience was still limited. He was drafted out of high school, meaning he had not played college ball. His minor league track record consisted of just 200 games. None of those were at the Triple-A level and only 46 were at Double-A. He wouldn’t celebrate his 21st birthday until April 19th of 2024.

On top of his youth and inexperience, the Padres were asking him to make a major defensive shift. He had primarily been a shortstop in the minors but the Friars had Ha-Seong Kim and Xander Bogaerts in their middle infield. In center field, Trent Grisham’s bat had fallen off and the Padres sent him to the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto deal. The Padres tried Merrill there in the spring, liked the results and gave him the job.

In spite of his talents, it would have been understandable if there were some growing pains for a guy so young and learning a premium defensive position on the fly. But no such pains were evident, as Merrill flourished. He hit 24 home runs for the Padres last year. His 4% walk rate was low but he also kept his strikeouts down to a 17% clip. His .292/.326/.500 batting line translated to a 130 wRC+, indicating he was 30% better than league average. He stole 16 bases in 19 tries. Defensive Runs Saved considered him to be league average in center, no small feat given the circumstances. Even more impressively, he was credited with 11 Outs Above Average, a mark that put him in the top ten of center fielders last year.

The overall package was very strong. FanGraphs credited him with 5.3 wins above replacement and Baseball Reference 4.4. That would have made him a slam-dunk Rookie of the Year in many seasons, but Merrill was up against Paul Skenes and his incredible debut. Merrill got seven out of 30 first-place votes and finished second to Skenes in National League ROY voting. He also finished ninth in the NL Most Valuable Player vote.

Kim departed via free agency after 2024 and the Padres could have considered moving Merrill back to shortstop this year, though president of baseball operations A.J. Preller quickly shot that down in October. The move to center field had gone so smoothly that they didn’t want to mess with it. The 2025 season could hardly have started better. Merrill has a line of .400/.435/.600 through six games as the Padres are undefeated.

The Padres clearly love Merrill. That’s why they nabbed him with a first-round pick and promoted him so quickly. They also reportedly discussed an extension with him prior to his debut, showing tremendous faith in him before he had even proved himself in the majors.

After that breakout, they probably wished they had got something done ahead of time, as he only increased his earning potential last year. Broadly speaking, extension prices go up as guys get further into their arbitration years and closer to free agency. We can only guess what number it would have taken to get a deal done a year ago. The Padres have had plenty of financial pressures in recent years but Merrill’s price would likely only go up over time, so now is better than later.

In terms of pre-arbitration extensions, Merrill comes in a bit below the top guarantees but on a shorter deal that will still allow him to hit free agency with a lot of earning power. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the top guarantees for pre-arb extensions are for Fernando Tatis Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodríguez. Tatis got $340MM but on a 14-year deal that essentially bought out his entire career. Witt got a guarantee of $288.8MM on an 11-year pact but he seems likely to opt out after seven years with with $148.8MM banked. Rodríguez got a $210MM guarantee over 12 years but with a complicated club/player option structure that could see him depart after seven seasons.

Merrill’s guarantee comes in a bit below that tier of players but on a shorter deal. The final guaranteed year of this pact will be his age-31 season, meaning he will still have a chance to secure another notable guarantee in the future via free agency. The option could keep him in San Diego another year but he also has a decent shot at converting it to a player option. As mentioned, he already finished ninth in MVP voting in his rookie season, so getting into the top five isn’t far-fetched. He has a decent shot of pushing up his salary earnings via those escalators. He also gets to bank huge money ahead of schedule, as he previously wasn’t slated to qualify for arbitration until after 2026.

For the Padres, they have had a budget crunch in recent years but they love their guys. Over the past five years, this is the sixth extension worth at least $80MM that they have put on the books, the others having gone to Tatis, Manny Machado, Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Jake Cronenworth.

Since this deal starts in 2026, it won’t affect the club’s competitive balance tax number in 2025. The specific annual breakdown hasn’t been publicly reported but early-career extensions often involve gradually escalating salaries. Musgrove’s deal is done after 2027. Nick Pivetta can opt out of his deal after 2026 or 2027. Robert Suarez can opt out of his pact after 2025. Luis Arráez, Dylan Cease and Michael King are each making notable salaries and are slated for free agency after this year. Though the budget has clearly been tight recently, the Friars evidently felt that they had enough wiggle room in the future to make this work.

It still amounts to a large pile of future commitments. Between Merrill, Bogaerts, Tatis and Machado, they have four mega contracts on the books through at least 2033. In recent years, with the collapse of their TV deal, that’s led to some budget crunches. The front office has had to get creative, including trading away Soto. They got huge value from a $1MM investment in Jurickson Profar last year, though that now looks suspect in the wake of his recent PED suspension. This winter, they took similar low-cost fliers on players like Kyle Hart and Jason Heyward, as well as a back-loaded deal for Pivetta.

Perhaps more such maneuverings are in the club’s future, as they seem content to run an imbalanced payroll with heavily-paid stars while they look for upside plays elsewhere. For fans, that means they can look forward to watching the Merrill/Tatis/Machado/Bogaerts core for close to another decade, while the supporting characters might rotate. For Merrill, thanks to his quick ascent to the majors, he was able to put nine figures in the bank while still having a chance to hit the open market in his early 30s.

Robert Murray of Fansided first reported that the two sides were in agreement on a nine-year deal with a $135MM guarantee and $30MM club/player option that could max out at $204MM. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that it started in 2026. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported the presence of the $30MM in plate appearance escalators that could bump the overall salary payout to $165MM. MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald reported the specifics on those escalators. Russell Dorsey of Yahoo reported the $10MM signing bonus, that the club option becomes a player option with a top five finish in MVP voting, and that a top ten finish is also an escalator. Heyman reported the salary breakdown.

Photos courtesy of Orlando Ramirez and Denis Poroy, Imagn Images

Paul Skenes Wins National League Rookie Of The Year, Earns Full Year Of Service Time

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Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes has been voted the National League Rookie of the Year for 2024, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Outfielder Jackson Merrill of the Padres finished second while outfielder Jackson Chourio of the Brewers finished third. The Pirates will not earn a PPI bonus pick from this result but Skenes will earn himself a full year of service time despite his late call-up.

Skenes, now 22, has made a quick rise to being one of the top pitchers in the sport. As of a year and a half ago, he was still pitching for Louisiana State University. The Pirates selected him with the first overall pick in the 2023 draft, with many viewing him as about as close to MLB-ready as a draft pick could be.

The Bucs let him get his feet wet as a professional, putting him into five minor league games late in 2023, but never letting him throw more than two innings in any of those. There was some speculation that he could crack the Opening Day roster in 2024 but the Pirates decided to build him up slowly. He was started in Triple-A but with his outings mostly kept around three or four innings.

Despite the kid gloves, Skenes proved it was time to break free, posting a 0.99 earned run average in those minor league outings. That got him promoted to the majors in May, less than a year after being drafted.

His relatively young age and lack of professional experience were easily overwhelmed by his incredible talent. Flashing a triple-digit fastball, a devastating “splinker” and several other pitches in his arsenal, Skenes went on to toss 133 innings over 23 big league starts. In that time, he had a 1.96 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate and 51.3% ground ball rate. He produced 4.3 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs, placing him tenth among all pitchers in the majors this year, despite tossing fewer innings than everyone ahead of him.

The timing of his call-up and this victory are both noteworthy. The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players features measures designed to encourage top prospects being promoted, the prospect promotion incentive, and also to disincentivize service time manipulation. If a player is on certain top 100 prospect lists and is promoted early enough in the season to earn a full service year, that player can earn his club a bonus draft pick depending on awards voting. On the flip side, if such a player is not promoted early enough to get a full year but managed to finish top two in Rookie of the Year voting regardless, that player earns himself a full year of service retroactively.

Had Skenes been promoted earlier in the year, this award would have netted the Bucs an extra draft pick. But since he was held down into May, they were not eligible to receive that pick. Skenes, on the other hand, will now have a full year of service time. That is significant for him as he is now slated to reach free agency after the 2029 season, his age-27 campaign. Under previous collective bargaining agreements, his free agency would have been one year further into the future.

Merrill was eligible to net the Padres a PPI bonus pick and likely would have done so in any other year. He just had the misfortune of competing against Skenes in the voting. Per the BBWAA, each of the 30 votes had Skenes and Merrill in the top two, 23 of them putting Skenes first and seven of them going for Merrill.

The fact that it was even close indicates how impressive Merrill was this year. A shortstop prospect with no Triple-A experience, Merrill moved to center field just this year to help the Padres fill a vacancy at that spot and hit the ground running. He got into 156 games for the Friars, hitting 24 home runs, stealing 16 bases, slashing .292/.326/.500 and getting strong grades for his glovework.

There was a case that Merrill deserved the award more than Skenes since his performance was over a full season, and clearly a handful of voters did lean that way, but ultimately not enough to get Merrill over the line. Despite the incredibly impressive performance, he comes up just shy of getting the trophy while the Padres come up just shy of getting a bonus draft pick.

The third place votes were split between just two players, as Chourio got 26 of them and Shota Imanaga of the Cubs got the other four. Chourio hit 21 home runs and stole 22 bases, slashing .275/.327/.464 while providing solid outfield defense. Imanaga tossed 173 1/3 innings over 29 starts for the Cubs with a 2.91 ERA. In many other years, those two players could have won the award, but they were instead relegated to nabbing a few third-place votes due to the stunning seasons of Skenes and Merrill. Players like Masyn Winn and Joey Ortiz also had excellent seasons but couldn’t even get any votes due to how strong the competition was in the National League this year.

Quick Hits: Nationals, Merrill, Athletics, Rays

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As the Padres and Nationals were negotiating the blockbuster Juan Soto trade in advance of the 2022 trade deadline, the Nats were able to obtain such top-tier young talents as CJ Abrams, James Wood, and MacKenzie Gore as part of the six-player trade package.  One player Washington didn’t land was Jackson Merrill, though Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the Nationals asked about Merrill as part of the trade talks.

Though Merrill was the 27th overall pick of the 2021 draft, his prospect stock didn’t really start to take off until he started to post big numbers for the Padres’ rookie league and A-ball affiliates during the 2022 season.  In fact, injuries limited Merrill to only 25 games in 2022 at the time of the Soto trade, so the Nationals weren’t working off a lot of scouting information when they checked into Merrill’s possible availability.  Though the Friars gave up a lot to bring Soto to San Diego, it looks like they made a canny move in keeping Merrill, as his tremendous rookie season helped lead the Padres to the NLDS this season.  Merrill hit .292/.326/.500 with 24 home runs over 593 plate appearances, and (even more remarkably) played strong defense as San Diego’s everyday center fielder despite never before playing center during his pro career.

Some other items from around baseball…

  • Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park will remain a natural-grass stadium when the Athletics begin play next season, a league spokesperson told the media (including The Athletic’s Evan Drellich).  Since the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate will continue sharing the ballpark with the A’s, the initial idea was to install an artificial surface for 2025 and beyond, as a grass field will take quite a bit of wear-and-tear from two full schedules’ worth of games.  However, players still preferred even a beaten-up grass surface to turf, as playing on an artificial surface outdoors in California would’ve routinely raised on-field temperatures to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, even for some night games.  “In light of the players’ clear preference for natural grass, and after weighing with the MLBPA the potential risks and benefits of maintaining natural grass versus replacing the playing surface with synthetic turf, all the parties are aligned in moving forward with a natural grass field for Opening Day 2025,” the spokesperson said.
  • In other stadium news, the Rays’ immediate landing spot isn’t yet clear as the club continues to assess how badly Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton.  Amidst speculation that the Rays could at least open the 2025 season in any number of different cities, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made it clear in an interview on the Varsity podcast that the league’s preference is to keep the Rays in the Tampa/St. Pete area.  “The easiest thing is always to stay in the market where the clubs are anchored, if we can manage it,” Manfred said, in terms of Tropicana Field, “we’re hopeful…the repairs can be done in a way that allows them to resume playing.”  That said, Manfred is aware of the “complication” of how the city could balk at a large repair bill for a stadium that will soon be abandoned entirely, as the Rays’ new ballpark is slated to be ready for Opening Day 2028.  (Hat tip to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.)

Preller Discusses Padres’ Shortstop Situation

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The Padres find themselves in an unfamiliar position. San Diego could be on the lookout for a shortstop despite their affinity for collecting players with experience at the position. Most of those players (i.e. Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth) moved off shortstop. Ha-Seong Kim will be a free agent when he declines his end of a mutual option in favor of a $2MM buyout. Kim is among the most difficult free agents to project after his season was cut short by a labrum injury that required surgery.

San Diego baseball operations president A.J. Preller addressed the position as part of a conference call with reporters on Monday (links via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune). Preller said the Padres “would love to bring (Kim) back” but acknowledged the uncertain timeline on his injury.

The Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee wrote a few weeks ago that Kim was aiming for a return in April or May. Preller left the situation more open-ended. The executive noted that Kim isn’t slated to begin a throwing program until close to the start of the season. As for a return to game action, Preller loosely floated “May, June, July” as viable outcomes.

It’s clearly too early in the rehab process for the Padres to narrow down a specific target. That uncertainty should all but close the book on the chance of San Diego issuing Kim a qualifying offer. The 29-year-old infielder would probably accept a $21.05MM salary, which is too much for the Padres to risk with Kim looking very likely to at least begin the season on the injured list.

Preller and his staff also face notable free agent losses in the bullpen (Tanner Scott), left field (Jurickson Profar) and behind the plate (Kyle Higashioka). The relief group should be strong enough to weather Scott’s departure, but the Padres will need to address a few spots in the lineup while also finding a replacement for the injured Joe Musgrove in the rotation. That could make it difficult to retain Kim.

Even if the Padres were to bring him back, they’d need a short-term replacement while he completes his rehab. If he walks, they’ll need a permanent answer. Bogaerts moved back from second base for the stretch run. The Padres seem to prefer him at the keystone, though they might not have any better options at shortstop.

Machado and Cronenworth haven’t played there in years. Nor has Tatis, who has been a full-time right fielder since returning from the injuries and suspension that wiped out his 2022 season. Merrill developed as a shortstop prospect before learning center field on the fly. The 21-year-old immediately became one of the sport’s top all-around center fielders.

Preller didn’t seem keen on the idea of moving Tatis or Merrill back to the infield. “They’d probably love that possibility. They always joke around — ’Whatever’s needed,’” the baseball ops president said. “The great part of those guys is they’re talented athletes, they can play different spots. … But Tati winning the Platinum [Glove] two years ago, and Jackson doing a tremendous job in center field this year, we know that they’re really good at what they do in the outfield.”

There hasn’t been much serious discussion about Tatis moving back to shortstop. It’s a plausible scenario for Merrill, who only moved off shortstop in deference to Kim and seems as if he can comfortably adjust to whatever position the Padres ask of him. Yet as Preller noted, it’s tempting to leave Merrill in center field with how well he played this year. San Diego doesn’t have an obvious in-house candidate to take over in center if Merrill were to come back onto the infield. They’d probably need to acquire a center fielder and the free agent market at the position is extremely thin. It’s not much deeper at shortstop, where only Willy Adames and Kim, if healthy, profile as regulars.

Padres, Jackson Merrill Reportedly Discussed Pre-Debut Extension

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The Padres saw their season come to an end last night at the hands of their division rivals in Los Angeles, but despite that disappointing end the 2024 campaign was nonetheless littered with plenty of bright spots for fans in San Diego. Perhaps the most significant among those was the emergence of Jackson Merrill, who entered Spring Training as a shortstop prospect with just 46 games at the Double-A level under his belt and turned a surprise Opening Day assignment in center field into a phenomenal rookie season.

Before that sensational season came together, however, it seems the Padres were already hoping to lock in the youngster’s services for the long haul. A report from The Athletic’s Dennis Lin earlier today revealed that San Diego brass discussed the possibility of an extension with Merrill last offseason, before the youngster had even made his MLB debut. The sides, of course, did not wind up coming together on a deal. That didn’t stop the Padres from installing Merrill in center field to kick off the season, however, and Merrill rewarded his club’s confidence in him with a season that saw him appear in 156 games while slashing .292/.326/.500 with 24 homers, 16 steals in 19 attempts, and a 130 wRC+.

Merrill’s debut season, during which he was just 21 years old, was the sort of campaign that inspires confidence in a young players ability to produce at the big league level. After all, Merrill showed off an impressive and varied profile that should help him continue to impact the Padres in all sorts of ways going forward. The youngster not only flashed impressive power with a .208 ISO that was second to only Aaron Judge among qualified center fielders this year, but he also struck out at an excellent 17% clip that was second to only Cody Bellinger by that same metric. And while his defense didn’t receive the universal praise lauded on players like Brenton Doyle and Daulton Varsho, Merrill’s +12 Outs Above Average at the position put him in the 97th percentile among big leaguers and made him the seventh most valuable defensive center fielder in the sport by the metric.

That combination of power, contact, and defense at a valuable up-the-middle position figures to leave Merrill as a wildly attractive extension candidate, particularly given that he’s currently scheduled to reach free agency after his age-26 campaign. With that being said, the price of extending a youngster of Merrill’s talent is sure to have gone up for the Padres relative to last winter now that he’s proven he can handle big league pitching. A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker showcases how lucrative even one dominant season in the big leagues can be, as both Ronald Acuna Jr. and Julio Rodriguez landed nine-figure extensions in the final months of their respective Rookie of the Year campaigns.

While the presence of budding ace Paul Skenes could complicate Merrill’s own pursuit of that award, his 5.3 fWAR in his rookie season falls in the middle of Acuna’s 4.4 figure and Rodriguez’s 5.8, though it’s worth noting that Acuna was a year younger than either Rodriguez or Merrill during his rookie season. Given his similarity to those youngsters, it seems reasonable to expect that Merrill would garner a guarantee well above the $100MM Acuna landed even if Rodriguez’s convoluted $210MM guarantee is not exactly the simplest point of comparison.

For San Diego’s part, they’ve certainly shown a willingness to spend heavily on extensions for young players in the past. The most obvious example of this is the $340MM deal the club made with Fernando Tatis Jr. prior to his third season with the club, though Jake Cronenworth’s seven-year extension signed just before the start of the 2023 season is another noteworthy example of the club committing to a long-term extension for a player with several years of team control remaining. Of course, both of those deals came together under the ownership of the late Peter Seidler, and the Padres began to scale back their payroll last year following his passing and Eric Kutsenda’s ascent to the role of interim control person.

Extending Merrill could also have a significant impact on the club’s luxury tax payroll going forward. Since the luxury tax is calculated based on average annual value, back-loaded extensions such as the one signed by Tatis early in his career or a hypothetical Merrill extension often have a far more significant impact on a club’s luxury tax positioning than they do on the club’s actual payroll in the early years of the deal. That could prove to be an obstacle for the Padres, who per RosterResource currently have a guaranteed payroll of just over $231MM for 2025 before factoring in offseason additions of arbitration-level contracts for players like Luis Arraez and Michael King.

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