The Road to The Show™: Padres’ Merrill

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at top Padres prospect Jackson Merrill. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

Since this year’s Trade Deadline, Jackson Merrill has done all he can to prove to the Padres that he was worth hanging on to.

The club’s top prospect was one of the best hitters in the California League to finish the regular season, and after an appearance in the championship with Single-A Lake Elsinore, he’s continued to swing a hot bat with Peoria in the Arizona Fall League.

MLB Pipeline’s No. 83 overall prospect had played just 25 games, 10 of which were rehab appearances in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League, before the Aug. 2 Deadline. The 19-year-old suffered a left wrist fracture at the end of April, which not only kept him out until late June, but also seemed to derail a brilliant start to the season. Prior to the injury, Merrill was batting .393 with a .452 on-base percentage and .970 OPS over 13 games.

After his rehab stint, Merrill played in just two games before San Diego’s potentially franchise-altering deal. The Padres were the winners of the Juan Soto sweepstakes at the cost of some significant prospect and rookie depth. (Robert Hassell III, James Wood, C.J. Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and Jarlin Susana went to Washington along with veteran Luke Voit.)

Wood and Merrill were Maryland-born teammates in Lake Elsinore who entered the Padres system in the same Draft class last season. After they both got off to a hot start with the Storm, the pair also rehabbed together in Arizona as Wood also had a lengthy IL stay while dealing with his own wrist issues.

“One of us or both was probably going to go. There's no doubt about it. They're not going to take the deal without one or the other of us. It was pretty obvious it was coming,” Merrill recalled in September. “It was pretty tough. I can't lie, like the next week not having [Wood] there when I'm playing was kind of difficult, but I have to also understand the business. It could have been me instead of him getting traded.”

Over the final 30 games of the regular season, Merrill batted .313 with an .876 OPS, four homers and 26 RBIs. The 6-foot-3, 195-pound lefty said he focused on his mobility during his rehab and felt strong upon his return.

“My hips are a lot looser now. I feel like I play a lot looser with my mobility,” Merrill told MiLB.com. “I feel like when I barrel a ball, it's a lot harder than what it was before. … I feel like you can actually tell the difference between then and now.”

Playing in his first postseason, Merrill hit another gear in four playoff contests. Merrill went 11-for-17 (.647) with four doubles and seven RBIs while helping the Storm to a championship sweep.

No. 1 for No. 1!@Padres top prospect Jackson Merrill launches his first AFL homer. pic.twitter.com/zWZoiAbj22

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) October 17, 2022

The Padres assigned him to play in the AFL, where he's getting a chance to make up for lost time. There are only four players currently in the AFL born in 2003, and only two -- the Marlins’ Jose Salas and D-backs’ Deyvison De Los Santos -- are younger than Merrill. Merrill is also the only member of that group who has yet to reach High-A.

“I kind of like the different pitchers, it’s more of a challenge,” Merrill told MLB.com last week. “Honestly, here, it’s just: Show off your skills, get [to face] some good pitching.”

Merrill got off to a hot start with the Javelinas, and he’s currently batting .292 with 21 hits in 18 games. Since the Trade Deadline, Merrill has collected 73 hits in 220 at-bats in the regular season, postseason and AFL, which is good for a .332 average.

Defensively, Merrill has played exclusively at shortstop in the Minors and the AFL. He committed nine errors this season, and two more with Peoria, but there's thought that he should be able to stick at the position. He’s typically larger than the traditional shortstop, but he’s also drawn comparisons to Corey Seager, who, along with players like Oneil Cruz, have challenged the idea that there’s a size limit on shortstops.

The Soto deal and the Padres’ other blockbuster trade for Josh Hader significantly thinned out the club’s farm system, which had been one of the deepest for most of the past decade. But San Diego reached the National League Championship Series for just the second time in franchise history, and Merrill’s performance since has shown that there’s still a lot of exciting talent left to develop.