Whit Merrifield Owes the Royals Nothing
Unless you've been living underneath a rock, you're aware that the Kansas City Royals made the trek to Toronto with nearly 40% of their regular roster "MIA" because of their vaccination status. This calamity has allowed the rest of the baseball world to get in a couple of well-placed jabs. Yet somehow, only one of these players is receiving significant blowback for not getting vaccinated and it's because he said the quiet part out loud.
After the Royals released their inactive list going into their series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Whit Merrifield claimed that he would consider getting the COVID-19 vaccine if it meant playing for a competitive team. Merrifield, with that quote, did more to try and salvage what little trade value he has left. Sometimes the truth hurts, and sometimes it hurts the most coming from someone with the type of career he's had in Kansas City.
Despite this, fans feel that Merrifield owed it to his teammates and the city to get vaccinated because it would've shown loyalty to the team. However, it only takes one trip in the way-back machine to realize that Merrifield only repaid the Royals with the same type of respect they showed him early on. Before everyone goes back to going after Merrifield, take a moment to examine the evidence below.
May 20, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals right fielder Whit Merrifield (15) walks off the field after losing to the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
It's easy to think that Merrifield was this highly regarded prospect that was here to help carry the Royals through a rebuild. In actuality, he was never supposed to be a major contributor and the Royals valued the development and playing time of several other players ahead of him.
Here are three players' minor league slash lines, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases and games played for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
- Player A: .225/.265/.361, 14 HR, 66 RBI, 36 SB in 191 games
- Player B: .300/.354/.391, 9 HR, 64 RBI, 24 SB in 139 games
- Player C: .290/.342/.414, 13 HR, 87 RBI, 48 SB in 255 games
Remember Christian Colon? He's Player B and was part of two of the most significant moments in Royals history: scoring the winning run in the 2014 American League Wild Card Game and driving in the series-winning run in the 2015 World Series. He was also a top-five prospect for the Royals after they selected him fourth overall in the 2010 MLB Draft.
Player A still plays for Kansas City. With that said, Adalberto Mondesi could easily be forgotten because he's spent more time injured and benched than he has on the field despite being a former top prospect for the Royals.
One thing both of these players have in common is that they were both a part of the World Series team. Another thing they have in common is that both should've been dropped from that team for Player C: Merrifield. The problem is that Merrifield wasn't a top prospect like those two. Despite being the better player, he was passed over for a spot that should've been rightly his.
Despite having a higher OPS than both Colon or Mondesi and being a bigger stolen base threat, he was never even considered for a bench spot on that team. (A quick reminder Merrifield drove in the game-winning run in the 2010 College World Series, so it wasn't like he didn't have experience of playing in big-time games.) This is unlike Mondesi, whose big game experience was probably relegated to intense MLB The Show 15 showdowns.
Merrifield made his debut in 2016, played well, then got sent back down to Omaha because he was Edward Olivares before Edward Olivares — a promising player the Royals had no interest in. Despite being the best second base option coming out of 2017 spring training, Merrifield was sent to Triple-A Omaha so Mondesi and Colon could be given roster spots.
Since 2017, Colon has been DFA'd, Mondesi has gotten plenty more second chances and Merrifield became a two-time All-Star, hit king and three-time stolen base champ. In 2014, 2015, 2016, and at the start of 2017, the Royals had the opportunity to embrace Merrifield as part of their core. Instead, they decided to call up the likes of Colon, Mondesi, Cheslor Cuthbert, Dusty Coleman, Orlando Calixte and Paulo Orlando. The Royals never considered Merrifield as a future piece of the team until they absolutely had to because they ran out of options. Even as a fully-fledged member, he's put the team first and moved positions so that lesser players could get on the field.
Remember how Merrifield was one of the best defensive second basemen in baseball last year? Do you also remember that at the start of this year, he was going to be moved to the outfield because Mondesi needed another chance to prove himself? Did Merrifield complain about getting shifted or about getting passed over for a World Series roster spot? Have you heard a peep out of him about how, unless he can find the fountain of youth, this is probably his last year in Kansas City? The answer to all of those is no.
The fact that Merrifield expressed his reluctance to get a vaccine for an organization that routinely picked worse players over him and went from world champions when he first got called up in 2016 to hopeless, directionless and hapless in 2022 should surprise nobody. Merrifield's career came in spite of the Royals, not because of it.
Remember how big a deal it was that the Milwaukee Brewers allowed Lorenzo Cain to reach the ten-year threshold before getting rid of him so that he could get a full retirement pension from MLB? Unfortunately, Merrifield will likely not play another three or four years to be able to reach that full pension because of years like 2014 and 2015.
Why aren't the other nine players getting lit up like Merrifield? Simply put, Michael A. Taylor and Andrew Benintendi are both probably gone at the deadline. The likes of MJ Melendez, Brady Singer, Brad Keller and Kyle Isbel are too important to the future and fans don't like Cam Gallagher, Hunter Dozier and Dylan Coleman enough to get worked up about their vaccine status.
Merrifield is the perfect target because he's been a longtime player to the chagrin of the Royals brass, he's on the decline and he said the quiet part that the rest of those players were thinking but were smart enough to not say.
Whatever your stance on COVID-19 and the vaccine will probably determine how you feel about Merrifield going forward despite him just being one of 10 players. I've got no problem with what he said and will remember him for his greatness in spite of an organization that had little to no belief in him.
