Even With Less Power, Whit Merrifield Still Has Plenty of Strengths
In Wednesday's loss to the Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield clobbered a grand slam to left field. As a matter of fact, I was mapping out this article when he hit it. It was his first jack since June 29 — nearly two months and over 200 at-bats had elapsed since then. While the home run put the Royals up at that point and was a great moment, it represents something bigger.
Merrifield doesn't have much power in his bat anymore, and that's okay.
Although his grand slam was able to boost both his slugging percentage and OPS, they're both Merrifield's lowest since 2016. Through 126 games, the 32-year-old has an even .400 SLG and an OPS of .721. Last season, those figures were .440 and .764, respectively. They were .463 and .811 in 2019. His isolated power grade is also a career-low, outside of his initial half-season five years ago. This no longer appears to be an anomaly: it's who Merrifield is.
Baseball Savant's data agree with this relative sapping of Merrifield's power. League-wide, the right-handed hitter is in the 11th percentile in average exit velocity, the eighth percentile in barrel rate and the fourth percentile in hard-hit rate. All three clearly fall under the "poor" category. Much like fellow infielder Nicky Lopez, though, Merrifield has been able to offer tremendous value in other ways.
Merrifield's Baseball Savant profile puts him in great company when it comes to several factors. First and foremost, his 37 stolen bases trail only Starling Marte. That's backed up by an average sprint speed that ranks in the 88th percentile of the entire MLB. Merrifield pairs that with a 13.7% strikeout rate that only five percent of players can say they excel more at. He ranks in the 92nd percentile in whiff rate.
More importantly, now that he's settled back in at second base, Merrifield remains one of the game's best defenders. Baseball Savant has him in the 94th percentile in its Outs Above Average metric. FanGraphs backs that up, as his 13 Defensive Runs Saved at second is easily a career-high. As Merrifield has gotten a bit older, he certainly hasn't lost a step on the basepaths nor in the field.
So, is Merrifield less valuable without the power he used to have? Sure. Recording fewer extra-base hits does have a drawback. With that said, he's been a three-win player by WAR this season and the argument can still be made that he is the best player on the Royals. His baserunning and defense are still elite, and they don't appear to be going away. For now, while he may not be a great player, Merrifield is absolutely still good.
Good will play, especially for a Royals team that desperately needs quality veteran leadership and quality play to go with it. Merrifield can provide that and even as he turns 33 early next year, the days in which he can't be considered a productive everyday player don't appear to be arriving anytime soon. Kansas City can deal with a dip in power numbers.
