The San Diego Padres aren’t making a lot of big baseball moves these days with the team up for sale, so most of the focus is on talking up what they’ve got. Star outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. has been declared off limits as a trade candidate, and the focus has turned to center fielder Jackson Merrill.
New manager Craig Stammen isn’t exactly being shy when it comes to his expectations for Merrill in 2026.
“That guy's a stud,” said Stammen, when he was asked about Merrill at the Winter Meetings in a piece by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “I'm expecting him to be the stud he is. Great rookie year. Last year was kind of hit-or-miss with the injuries. The concussion, just coming back from those injuries was tough on him. I think at the end of the season, we saw who Jackson was and how he can bounce back from adversity. We're expecting great things from him this year.”
To do that, however, Merrill will have to come back from a series of debilitating injuries that hampered him this year, including a hamstring strain, concussion-related issue and finally an ankle sprain.
But Merrill finished strong. He hit seven home runs in September to go with an OPS of .946, according to Cassavell, and he was the Padres most productive player in the Padres’ loss to the Cubs in the Wild Card Series.
“In ’24, when he was healthy start to finish, I think he could have been in MVP consideration that year, along with, obviously, Rookie of the Year,” said Padres GM A.J. Preller. “Last year, he got off to a great start. I thought in Spring Training it looked like he’d taken even another step. Early in the season he was playing great. Then he had the injuries. Hopefully that’s something that he’s able to put behind him.
“The nice part was kind of seeing him, for the first time at the big league level, have some struggle and then break through in the last month. It felt like that was the Jackson Merrill that we had watched early in the year and in the ’24 season. He was one of the better players on the field in that playoff series. So having him back every single day, healthy, playing like Jackson, continuing to get better, that’s big for us.”
At the moment, the contract Merrill signed with the Padres is just as big. It’s a nine-year deal he signed in April that keeps him under team control for most of the next decade.
“He’s a huge part of what we’re doing, to have a player that plays in the middle of the field and can really impact the game,” said Preller, “all parts of it -- offensively, defensively, power, speed, hit.”