Jackson Merrill

Jackson Peter Merrill

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 3", Weight 195 lb.
High School Severna Park High School
Debut March 20, 2024

Born April 19, 2003 in Baltimore, MD USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Shortstop Jackson Merrill was taken by the San Diego Padres with the 27th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2021 amateur draft, out of a high school in Baltimore, MD.

He began his pro career the year he was drafted with the ACL Padres, playing 31 games and hitting .280/.339/.383. In 2022, he played 10 games with the ACL Padres and 45 with the Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League. He missed two months of action between April and June with an injury. In the California League, he hit .325 with 5 homers and 34 RBIs, and he also played in the Arizona Fall League after the season, taking part in the Rising Stars Game. He was named a Padres organizational All-Star after the season, in spite of the time missed. In 2023, he finally played a full season, splitting 114 games between the Fort Wayne Wizards of the Midwest League and the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League. His combined slash line was .277/.326/.444 with 15 homers and 64 RBIs. He was once again an organizational All-Star and was also named to the 2023 Futures Game.

He had played almost exclusively shortstop during his first three seasons as a pro, but in spring training in 2024, the Padres had him working out in centerfield, as with Ha-seong Kim and Xander Bogaerts on the roster, the team was well set at shortstop, whereas there were few options for centerfield. Merrill had never played the position before, but took to the change enthusiastically, realizing it could mean a quick ticket to the Show. Early returns were positive as he was selected to be on San Diego's roster for their two-game season-opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in South Korea. If he were to start on Opening Day, he would become only the third player to do so in centerfield before turning 21 in the last 50 years, after Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Jones, with Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers also vying for the distinction. He did just that when he started the first game's of the Padres' season-opening series in Seoul, South Korea on March 20th. He went 0 for 3 while batting 9th. That also made him the first major league player to make his debut that season. He collected his first big league hit in the second game, a 15-11 Padres win, in fact getting a pair of base knocks including a double, and scoring twice. His first accomplishment was to be able to hold on to the centerfield job for the first two months of the year, against large odds, even if he did not do a whole lot to stand out - just holding his own was a feat given his age and level of experience. That changed on June 12th when he played the hero in a 5-4 win over the Oakland Athletics at Petco Park: he homered off Hogan Harris in the 5th inning, then came up with one out in the 9th against closer Mason Miller, one of the hardest throwers in the game, and became the youngest player in Padres history to hit a walk-off homer. It was also the first multi-homer game of his career. This started a stretch in which he homered seven times in a ten-game stretch. He was named the National League Rookie of the Month for June, hitting .320 for the month with an OPS of .996, then was named to play in the All-Star Game. He hit another walk-off homer on August 25th, this one off Edwin Diaz of the New York Mets to give San Diego a 3-2 win in the bottom of the 9th. He was again the NL Rookie of the Month in August when he batted .303 and slugged .626 with 7 homers and 23 RBIs.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2024 MLB All-Rookie Team
NL All-Star (2024)
NL Silver Slugger Award (2024)
20-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2024)

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Jackson Merrill

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