John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Golf Pro, Grinder, Iron Man: Whit Merrifield Brings It All to Blue Jays
Whit Merrifield has an issue with his Blue Jays teammates. Nobody will play golf with him.
He's the consensus best linksman on the team. Working to chip away the final two strokes that'll bring him down to a scratch golfer, Merrifield tries to play at least once a week — every off-day for sure, and sometimes before night games when his pre-game workout doesn't get in the way. But his teammates? They can't keep up.
“Nobody wants to play during the season," Merrifield said. "It just drives me nuts.”
When the Blue Jays acquired Merrifield at last year's trade deadline, it looked like age was finally catching up to the long-time Kansas City Royal. He hit a career-worst .250 and fell out of regular playing time in 2022.
But this year, he's re-found his All-Star form. On top of being a (nearly) scratch golfer, stolen-base specialist, and utility man, Merrifield's been a needed spark for an inconsistent Toronto lineup. He's got the highest tempo on the team, and he's not slowing down.
“He plays like a 25-year-old in a 34-year-old body," Daulton Varsho said.
Merrifield is the first one to admit his 2022 was a "bad year." In every other full season of his MLB career, he'd hit above .275, stolen at least 20 bases, and notched 80+ runs. Last year, those numbers fell to .250, 16 SB, and 70 runs, respectively. Anyone familiar with an aging curve could square Merrifield's tumble as a natural part of falling a few too many years on the wrong side of 30. For the player, age wasn't a factor.
“It’s a hard game, sometimes you just don’t have a great year. Last year, I don’t feel like it made me less of a player, it was just a bad year," Merrifield said. "I don’t think age had anything to do with it. I was just stuck on a team that wasn’t really going anywhere, losing a lot, and it kind of wore on me.”
Saying you're not too old and playing like you're not too old are two separate things, though. Over 120 games into Merrifield's 2023, he looks awfully similar to his peak.
Comparing Merrifield's 2023 season to his three-year peak from 2017 to 2019. (Via DataWrapper)
The second he got to spring training this year, Merrifield was running wild — five stolen base attempts in 15 spring games. He was pushing the boundaries of baseball's new rules to figure out just how much a pickoff maximum and bigger bases could help him. But, he was also showcasing his primary talent.
Stolen bases are what earned Merrifield his MLB promotion in 2016. He had a mid-.700s OPS in Triple-A the year he got called up, but he also had 20 swiped bags in 69 starts. In three separate MLB seasons since, he's led the American League in SBs. This year, Merrifield's on pace for another 30 stolen base campaign and leads the Jays in the category by seven.
"You don’t see many guys at age 34 stealing bags the way he does," Kevin Kiermaier said.
In a May contest in Pittsburgh, Merrifield bounced off second before bolting into a sprint. The Blue Jays veteran was nearly to third before Rich Hill even released the ball. Austin Hedges didn't consider a throw. Two innings later, he was off again. A batter later, he stole third, too. One game, three swiped bags.
Merrifield is slower than when he first broke into the big leagues, but he's smarter. Both Kiermaier and Varsho said he spends more time studying pitcher tendencies and noticing little details about deliveries and pick-off moves than any other player they've been around. And that's coming from two noted speedsters.
“I think he’s gotten a lot smarter as his career has gone on, on the base paths," Kevin Gausman said. "And that’s why his steal percentage is so high. He picks his spots when to go.”
Reasserting himself as a notorious base stealer in a 2023 baseball environment with big bases and stifled pick-offs isn't entirely surprising for Merrifield. But, I'm not sure anyone predicted a near-career-best year at the plate.
Merrifield's park- and era-adjusted OPS (OPS+) sits just 2% below his best season (2018) and he's on pace to hit over 15 homers for just the third time in his career. While much of Toronto's lineup around him posts offensive numbers below their career averages, Merrifield's earned his way up to the top of Toronto's batting order. Since earning the top job on July 28th, Merrifield is hitting .325 with four homers and an .861 OPS.
"He's been a real kind of bright spot for us with his overall game this year," manager John Schneider said. "It's been a real, real plus. Not that we didn't expect it but, I mean, it's been really good."
Beyond the stolen base renaissance and batter's box resurgence, Merrifield is happiest about his return to lineup regular. His 139 games played last year were the fewest of his entire MLB career. For a guy that held baseball's consecutive games played streak until July 2022, watching from the dugout was hard. Especially hard, because that regular playing time was his biggest point of pride.
When Merrifield does call it a career, more than golf pro, bag-swiper, or leadoff man, he wants to go down as an everyday player. But he's nowhere near retirement, yet.
“[I want to be known as] a guy that showed up every day, played as hard as he could every day, and was the same guy every day," Merrifield said.
