Inside The Padres

Padres Outfielder Jackson Merrill's Rehab Location, Date Set

J.P. Hoornstra|
San Diego Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill (3) looks on during the eighth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Petco Park.
San Diego Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill (3) looks on during the eighth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Petco Park. | Chadd Cady-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres have 135 million reasons to be careful in protecting the health of outfielder Jackson Merrill.

Merrill, who signed a lucrative nine-year contract extension with the Padres in April, will presumably call San Diego home until 2034 or 2035. For now, he's on the injured list and the team is cautiously guarding his return from a right hamstring strain.

Saturday, Merrill will play a minor league rehab game with Double-A San Antonio. It will be his first competitive game since he suffered the injury on April 6.

Through his first 10 games of the season, Merrill was slashing .378/.415/.676 with three home runs and 10 RBIs.

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The Padres have thrived in spite of Merrill's absence, taking a 20-11 record into Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

According to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres are hoping to activate Merrill for Monday's game against the New York Yankees.

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That's contingent on his rehab assignment going well. A two-game stint is relatively short, considering how much time Merrill has missed. But if anyone can bounce back from an injury quickly, it's a 22-year-old athlete at the top of his game.

Merrill was the runner-up to Paul Skenes in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. A shortstop to that point in his career, he was pressed into service as an outfielder in spring training. Not only did Merrill adapt quickly to the new position, he was named the team's Opening Day center fielder and never ceded the position.

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In 156 games last season, Merrill hit .292 with a .326 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage. He belted 24 home runs, 90 RBIs, and was a reliable producer in the clutch as the Padres clinched a National League Wild Card berth.

In the postseason, Merrill went 6-for-24 in seven games with a home run and five RBIs. The Padres pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to the brink in a best-of-five NL Division Series before being eliminated in the winner-take-all game in Los Angeles.

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Merrill returned to his now-familiar center field position to begin the 2025 season. Spring training was barely over when he finalized the contract extension — widely heralded as a bargain for the team.

Brandon Lockridge and Tyler Wade, capable defenders who carry a light bat, have been the Padres' primary center fielders in Merrill's absence.

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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