This time last year, many in the baseball industry knew who Jackson Merrill was. Having been selected by the San Diego Padres in the 2021 MLB Draft, the then-20-year-old was considered a top prospect and a rising star to keep an eye on. Even so, the player himself wasn’t sure when or even if he’d get his opportunity to break out.
But sometimes a team need creates an individual opportunity, and that’s what developed last spring in front of the former first-round pick.
The 2024 Padres needed a center fielder, and so, with very few options in sight, they looked to Merrill to make a massive change during spring training: Move from shortstop, where he had played his entire career, to a new position in center.
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“That was crazy,” Merrill recalled to Yahoo Sports.
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Did he ever consider saying no?
“It wasn’t even a thought in my mind,” he said. “I never said no to myself. I never said no to anybody. It was like, ‘You wanna play center?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m out there. I’m out there for you guys.’”
Looking back, you might say that the possibility of a position change had always existed somewhere in the back of the young player’s mind.
“When I got drafted, I said I’d play anywhere. I actually asked when we [first] got out to Arizona. I said, ‘Can I take some outfield drills?’ and the coach was like, ‘No, you’re not allowed to,’” Merrill remembered with a smile.
When the situation called for it, the Padres’ new center fielder was up for the challenge, and not only did he accept his new reality, but he also flourished almost immediately. Beginning in his debut against the Dodgers in the Seoul Series, Merrill quickly showed all of baseball that he’s a force to be reckoned with. And at a time when the Padres’ lineup needed a jolt coming off a dismal 2023, Merrill, who will turn 22 in April, delivered.
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In his first MLB season, Merrill slashed .292/.326/.500 in 156 games and led all rookies in batting average, hits (162), home runs (24), extra-base hits (61) and RBI (90). He also thrived defensively at a brand-new position, rating +11 in outs above average in center. Merrill became the first Padres rookie to make the All-Star Game, finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting behind Paul Skenes and helped power San Diego to 93 wins and a spot in the postseason.
That’s to say nothing of the young slugger’s six game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the seventh inning or later.
“I think having confidence leading up to that moment is huge, but in the moment, it’s a blackout,” he said of his clutch hits. “If you’re locked in and you’re focused, there’s nothing that’s gonna take you off. Like, you don’t even think about anything. You’re up there trying to hit a pitch and trying to do something for your team, so that was me in every moment.”
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Once October arrived, Merrill didn’t shrink from that moment, either. In his first seven career postseason games — before the Padres were eliminated by the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLDS — Merrill went 6-for-24 with three walks, a double, a triple and a home run. His first hit of the wild-card series against Milwaukee made him the youngest player in Padres history with a postseason hit, a distinction that previously belonged to teammate Fernando Tatis Jr. Merrill added his first playoff home run in the wild Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers.
“It was like the Coliseum. You ever seen ‘Gladiator’?” Merrill said when asked about the atmosphere that night at Dodger Stadium. “… But I think it was good for us. We needed that boost. We needed some anger in our lives. …
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“Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted, but that was a huge moment for us.”
Going into 2025, Merrill is a fixture in San Diego’s lineup and out in center field at Petco Park. And with a healthy roster, the Padres hope to be among the contenders in the National League once again. But their young star hasn’t let his meteoric rise stop him from continuing to learn about himself and the game along the way.
Asked what he might want to do differently in his sophomore season, Merrill had an answer ready.
“Share it with people. I think sharing it with people is what I want to do more,” he said. “More with my family, more with my girlfriend, I think sharing it with people will be huge this year. Last year was kind of hard for me to find my feet, find where I was at.
“Even if it didn’t look like it, it was still a process to get used to the new life.”
