MLB experts continue to support Jackson Merrill as Padres gear up for playoff run | Sports

The 2024 San Diego Padres are arguably the deepest workforce in baseball. Their lineup has quite a lot of guys that may beat you on any given evening, and each the rotation and bullpen rank among the many greatest in baseball proper now. Isolating “one guy” as the explanation for the Padres' success this season could be very troublesome and unfair to the collective workforce effort that has gotten them to this level.

However, you'll wrestle to discover anybody that thinks San Diego could be in such a good place with out Jackson Merrill taking part in day by day this season.

While Merrill has gotten loads of justifiable Rookie of the Year love from Padres followers and impartial experts alike, what he has achieved in his first season within the huge leagues remains to be someway under-appreciated.

Merrill has played Gold Glove-caliber defense at a place he switched to throughout spring coaching whereas additionally showcasing an all-around offensive recreation that ranks with the very best outfielders in MLB. Is he the very best in anybody space? No, however he's actually good at just about all the things besides working walks.

With that in thoughts, it's no marvel that Merrill was predicted to go off in the playoffs in a roundtable dialogue of potential postseason breakout stars over on MLB.com.

Jackson Merrill predicted to escape in a giant approach in the course of the 2024 playoffs

Merrill's advocate on this case was Yahoo! Sports' Russell Dorsey, who highlighted his total excellence at such a young age. However, Dorsey additionally appropriately identified that Merrill additionally has an actual knack for rising to the event in huge moments. Between all the clutch hits, go-ahead homers, and big-time catches late in video games, that's onerous to argue with.

The playoffs are a distinct beast than the common season, nevertheless. Every single recreation can fully alter the complexion of a winner-take-all sequence and, to be blunt, Merrill hasn't been confronted with that setting. We can draw conclusions based mostly on what he has achieved to this point, however we can't know for sure that Merrill will nonetheless be “that guy” till he truly does it.

That stated, Merrill has exceeded each expectation to date and squelched virtually each doubt (please begin drawing some walks, Jackson) throughout his stellar rookie marketing campaign. Assuming that continues to maintain true and he actually is “built different”, Padres followers might be in for one hell of a present this October.

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