Connect with us

San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Jackson Merrill

Published

1 year ago

on

Padres roster review: Jackson Merrill



Padres roster review: Jackson Merrill – San Diego Union-Tribune



Advertisement



















Skip to content

JACKSON MERRILL

  • Position(s): Center field
  • Bats / Throws: Left / Right
  • 2025 opening day age: 21
  • Height / Weight: 6-foot-3 / 195 pounds
  • How acquired: 1st round in 2021 (Severna Park HS, Md)
  • Contract status: Will not be arbitration-eligible until 2027
  • fWAR in 2024: 5.3
  • Key 2024 stats: .292 avg., .326 OBP, .500 SLG, 24 HRs, 90 RBIs, 77 runs, 29 walks, 101 strikeouts, 16 steals (156 games, 593 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

  • .945 — Merrill’s OPS in 61 games after the All-Star break, 200 points above his first-half mark. Merrill paired 12 homers and 46 RBIs with a .278/.310/.435 batting line over 95 games to earn an All-Star invitation and then upped his game with 12 more homers and a .314/.349/.596 batting line as the Padres went 43-20 after the break to wrap up the NL’s top wild-card spot.

 

TRENDING

  • Up — Before selecting Merrill with the 27th overall pick in 2021, the Padres’ first pick of the draft had been entrenched inside the top-10 since 2016. The industry saw Merrill as a pop-up prospect, but the Padres were confident in their homework on him coming out of the pandemic and were rewarded when Merrill developed into a prospect that ranked as high as No. 12 in MLB.com’s top-100 heading into the 2024 season. He was still a shortstop at that point, but that didn’t stop the Padres, ever creative under Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller, from giving him a look in left field and then in center in spring training. Merrill looked like a natural in the grass and hit .333/.378/.548 in a Cactus League to force his way onto the opening day roster and into the lineup for the Seoul Series. At 20 years and 336 days old, only Ken Griffey Jr. (19 years, 133 days in 1989 and 20 years, 139 days in 1990) and Don Hahn (20 years, 143 days in 1969) were younger than Merrill while starting in center field on opening day in the divisional era. Merrill went on to collect two hits in his second game and hold his own in April (.696 OPS). After a cold May (.656 OPS), he hit .320/.346/.651 in June as the NL Rookie of the Month. That helped catapult Merrill toward a spot on the NL’s All-Star team, but a second NL Rookie of the Month push in August was part of a second-half tear (see stat to note) that helped push the Padres toward the NL’s top wild-card spot. Merrill hit 12 of his 24 homers in the second half and ranked in the top 96% in the majors in expected slugging (.534) during the breakout rookie season. Moreover, he became the first rookie and the youngest player of the expansion era to ever hit five game-tying or go-ahead homers in the ninth inning or later, which included blasts off some of the best relievers in the game in Mason Miller, Edwin Díaz and Blake Treinen. Merrill went on to hit .250/.333/.500 with one homer in seven postseason games. Merrill finished second to the Pirates’ Paul Skenes’ historic year in NL Rookie of the Year voting, but his credentials were more than good enough to win in most years as he led all rookies in hits (162), extra-base hits (61), RBIs (90), batting average (.292) and slugging (.500), was tied with the Orioles’ Colton Cowser in home runs and was tied for sixth among all center fielders with 12 outs above average.

 

2025 OUTLOOK

Advertisement
  • Merrill developing into an All-Star as a rookie played a major role in a payroll-shedding Padres team winning 93 games, second most in franchise history. The Padres have yet to outline a plan to replace Ha-Seong Kim at shortstop and Merrill could be seen as an option. The organization, however, has top prospect Leodalis De Vries developing quickly, which could lead the Padres to allow Merrill to simply build on a standout 2024 season in center field, perhaps higher in the lineup, too, as he moved into a run-producing role late in the year after spending most of the season in the bottom third.

 

San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill and teammates celebrate a 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers to secure a playoff spot at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.(K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

 

Roster rankings

  • 6. RHP Yu Darvish
  • 7. INF Luis Arraez
  • 8. INF Xander Bogaerts
  • 9. RHP Robert Suarez
  • 10. INF Jake Cronenworth
  • 11. RHP Jason Adam
  • 12. RHP Joe Musgrove
  • 13. Adrián Morejón
  • 14. RHP Jeremiah Estrada
  • 15. RHP Matt Waldron
  • 16. INF Eguy Rosario
  • 17. RHP Randy Vásquez
  • 18. RHP Bryan Hoeing
  • 19. LHP Yuki Matsui
  • 20. RHP Sean Reynolds
  • 21. C Luis Campusano
  • 22. RHP Jhony Brito
  • 23. RHP Alek Jacob
  • 24. OF Tirso Ornelas
  • 25. RHP Ryan Bergert
  • 26. RHP Henry Baez
  • 27. LHP Omar Cruz
  • 28. OF Brandon Lockridge
  • 29. LHP Tom Cosgrove
  • 30. RHP Stephen Kolek
  • 31. RHP Juan Nuñez
  • 32. C Brett Sullivan
  • 33. UT Tyler Wade
  • 34. LHP Wandy Peralta



Source link

Advertisement
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

San Diego, CA

Adobe Falls: The elusive waterfall that briefly returns after San Diego rains

Published

3 hours ago

on

June 30, 2026

By

Adobe Falls: The elusive waterfall that briefly returns after San Diego rains


View of a man standing above Adobe Falls, c. 1918. (Photo and caption info courtesy of the San Diego History Center)

Blink, and you might miss it.

Adobe Falls isn’t Niagara Falls — or anything close — but after winter rains, a seasonal waterfall briefly appears in a narrow Del Cerro canyon, hidden beneath streets, homes, and San Diego State University property.

The waterfall forms along Alvarado Creek, which drains parts of eastern San Diego, including the SDSU area and surrounding neighborhoods. In wet months, runoff moves through a steep canyon and drops over a short rock ledge known locally as Adobe Falls. In dry periods, the flow often fades to a trickle or disappears entirely, leaving exposed sandstone and a shaded canyon bed.

What makes the site stand out is its setting. Above the canyon are Del Cerro residential streets and university property tied to San Diego State. Below it, Alvarado Creek continues west as part of the Mission Valley watershed, eventually feeding into the San Diego River system. Like many urban drainages in San Diego, its flow is shaped by stormwater runoff, paved surfaces, and altered drainage patterns tied to development.

Advertisement
View of a small wood dam at Adobe Falls in the State College area in 1929. A small pond is on the other side of the wooden dam, and barren hills are in the background. (Photo and caption info courtesy of the San Diego History Center)

Access is restricted. The canyon sits on a mix of SDSU and city-managed land and has long been closed to the public due to safety concerns, including steep terrain, erosion, and unstable footing after rain. Although widely referenced in maps and online posts, it is not an official trail or recreation site.

The canyon itself pre-dates modern development in Del Cerro. It is part of a broader network of inland waterways and canyon corridors used for thousands of years by the Kumeyaay, whose presence shaped movement and settlement patterns across the region.

In the mid-20th century, as Del Cerro developed, homes and roads were built along canyon rims rather than through them, leaving Alvarado Creek intact as a drainage system. Adobe Falls remained within that corridor even as surrounding hillsides filled with residential and institutional development.

Today, Adobe Falls remains a small but persistent reminder that San Diego’s natural drainage systems still function within a heavily built environment — appearing briefly after storms, then receding back into the canyon until the next rain.

Read more history stories here, and do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.

Sources:

Advertisement

City of San Diego – Stormwater & Watershed Division (Alvarado Creek / Mission Valley watershed)
San Diego State University – planning and environmental impact documentation for adjacent canyon areas
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – San Diego County watershed and hydrology mapping (Alvarado Creek / San Diego River system context)
San Diego History Center – Kumeyaay regional land use and inland canyon corridor history
City of San Diego Planning Department – land use records and access restrictions for Adobe Falls area
California State Historic Landmark files – Adobe Falls (Landmark No. 80)



Source link

Continue Reading

San Diego, CA

Former City Manager, Jack McGrory: Straight Talk About San Diego, Part 2

Published

23 hours ago

on

June 29, 2026

By

Former City Manager, Jack McGrory: Straight Talk About San Diego, Part 2






Former City Manager, Jack McGrory: Straight Talk About San Diego, Part 2 – OB Rag























Skip to content