Golden Boy to Outcast In No Time
How Whit Merrifield went from beloved Kansas Citian, to detested outcast in about a month.
DISCLAIMER: In writing this article, I avoided any political leanings with the COVID-19 vaccine. I will not speculate on whether it was right or wrong for him, I will only give the facts of the reaction surrounding his decision. This article is NOT a condemnation NOR an endorsement of his decision.
Whit Merrifield was seemingly everything that fans of the Kansas City Royals could ask for. He was a humble guy who, despite not playing anywhere near the Kansas City area, felt like a homegrown product after six years in the minors. He was one of baseball’s best-kept-secret stars. Until he wasn’t…
This is the story of how player so beloved by a metro area of 2.2 million, can sour into those same 2.2 million calling for him to be banished from the city completely. All in the matter of about a month. In order to paint the picture of how Whit Merrifield became seen as a rags-to-riches MLB star that a blue collar city like Kansas City could easily rally behind, we have to take a look at his early baseball career.
It’s June 29, 2010. On a characteristically warm midwest summer night in Omaha, Nebraska the proverbial ‘Baseball Gods’ were determined to make sure the iconic Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium’s 60 year reign on college baseball would come to an end in the most dramatic way possible. Merrifield’s South Carolina Gamecocks are in a deadlock with UCLA 1-1 in the bottom of the 11th inning. Most regular season games tied at one a piece would seem mind numbingly boring. But not this one. Not a winner-takes-all game in extra innings for the championship. UCLA’s Dan Klein was as gassed as a closer can be on his 67th pitch. Star-to-be pitcher Trevor Bauer headed to the bullpen, but manager John Savage decided to stick with Klein for at least one more at bat against Merrifield.
With one out and a man on third, Merrifield is quoted as saying in a June 2020 interview with Alec Lewis: “Screw it, I’m never going to be in that opportunity again. Nobody ever gets this chance. I’m not going to try to sit here and take pitches and work a walk. If this ball is anywhere close, I’m swinging.” So, after taking the first pitch for a wide ball, swing he did. Merrifield unloaded on the second and sent it down the ride side of the field… a fair ball that would deliver the South Carolina Gamecocks their first, and only, ever College World Series Championship.
The excitement and shock would deliver Whit Merrifield to the Royals as the 269th overall pick from the 2010 MLB draft, held just three weeks prior, riding a wave of excitement and buzz. That wave would not last for long.
Merrifield would spend the next six years in the minors, in a unique way. The traditional path for a long term minor-leaguer is full of ups and downs within the roster. Said player gets drafted, starts in rookie ball, moves through Class A ball, then AA where they might struggle and get sent back down to Class A. After getting their bearings back and establishing a footing, they go back to AA and play well enough to advance to AAA, before sliding back and forth between AAA and AA. The cycle repeats long enough for an MLB or MiLB front office to create a long-term determination of untrustworthy play, whether justified or not. But as I said, Merrifield was unique.
After advancing from Class A in 2012, Merrifield would move onto AA where he would play for two seasons stretched over the span of three years averaging a .269/.333/.395 slash-line before finally breaking out mid-way into the 2014 season and getting the call to, ironically, Omaha. While in AAA for another two seasons stretched into three calendar years, Merrifield would drastically improve to a .290/.337/.420 slash.
While his play on the field was improving, Merrifield was struggling behind the scenes. In 2015, when Royals star left fielder Alex Gordon would miss two months with a groin injury after a collision with the fence, it felt like Whit would finally get his chance to prove himself. Instead, the Royals leaned on players already on the roster like Paulo Orlando and Jarrod Dyson before acquiring Ben Zobrist from the Tampa Bay Rays, effectively closing the door on his call-up to the Majors during that season. He’d say during a 2016 Omaha Stormchasers Press Event: “It's hard not to get frustrated… This year I'm hoping to be a little more mentally strong…It's hard to say anything bad about what they did, because they won a world championship. So obviously they made the right move. But I felt like I could have helped. They made the right decision; it just kinda sucked for me personally.”
Whit wouldn’t have to wait long though, as he would make his debut on May 18th, 2016 against the Boston Red Sox and the praise didn’t take long to pour in for Merrifield. “I’ve been in this game a long time,” said former Royals manager Ned Yost said, “I think Whit was the one player I missed on.” White Sox manager Tony LaRussa would say: “He’s a guy you just admire. Just the overall ability and consistency.”, and Angels manager Joe Maddon would follow up with “I’m a big fan. He’s a good baseball player. A real good baseball player”.
While Whit Merrifield’s play on the field would be All-Star level, hitting above .300 multiple times, and leading the league in hits and steals multiple times, the adoration from Royals fans grew. He quickly became one of the most popular players in the team’s clubhouse, unanimously behind team faces of the franchise Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Eric Hosmer. But, as things often do in life, the following years would not go according to plan.
Following the 2016 injuries to Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas on a scary early-season collision, the season was basically trashed. The Royals finished 81-81 in 2016, and 80-82 in 2017. The front office knew it was time, and one-by-one his teammates who were crowned champions just two years before, left the organization. Eric Hosmer would leave for San Diego on a contract worth less for more years, Lorenzo Cain would return to Milwaukee, Mike Moustakas would break the Royals home run record before being swiftly traded to the Brewers. All that was left was the legendary Alex Gordon and the Royals’ brightest smile in Salvador Perez.
Alex Gordon would retire in 2020, and it was a true indicator for Merrifield’s tenure. Whit had arrived just a little too late. The team would acquire a 378-492 (.434%) record from Merrifield’s entrance in the league through the 2021 season, and just a measly .397% since his inaugural teammates began leaving.
At the time of his debut, Whit Merrifield was just one season removed from a World Series ring around his finger. He was just a little too late from glory. This would create obvious frustration in him that would bubble into the post-covid 2022 season.
By 2022, the Royals minor leagues had produced a great young positional core of Nicky Lopez, Bobby Witt Jr., M.J. Melendez, Nick Pratto, Nate Eaton, Vinnie Pasquantino, among others. Many Royals fans figured Whit Merrifield was on the trading block simply due to his age and the abundance of prospects, specifically infielders. Boy were they wrong…
In the midst of a 2022 that saw his worst statistical season as a pro, Merrifield was hitting just .240. He just couldn’t put the bat on the ball. Even his accomplishment of the most games started consecutively in Royals history, 553 straight, was marred in controversy when in July he was benched due to a ‘toe injury’. What was going on? Merrifield had played through minor injuries before. He was an iron man. Fans believed they saw the whole picture, calling it a ‘phantom injury’ just a few days later when it came out that Merrifield was not vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning he couldn’t travel with the team to Toronto to face off against the Blue Jays due to Canada’s restrictions. Fans accused Merrifield of sitting just prior to the roadtrip so that the streak would end due to injury instead of something as controversial as being unvaxxed.
Merrifield was among a slurry of players that were determined to be unvaccinated, so it was a real possibility if Whit had left the whole thing alone it would’ve blown over. Whit did not do this. Rather, Whit would double down in an interview that he proclaimed: “That's the only reason that I would think about getting it at this point, is to go to Canada. That might change down the road. Something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes.” Royals fans were outraged. A day later, Royals President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore was forced to react to the quote saying, “When I first heard that, I was very disappointed. Pretty disgusted, truthfully.” and Merrifield was scheduled for a damage-control interview on local 610 Sports Radio.
He doubled down.
Royals fans exploded.
Once loving fans now called for him to be traded immediately. Combine this controversy with a season of what appeared to be slower play and less effort, and it was a situation for disaster. Then, the worst possible situation for Merrifield happened. The next game on July 14, the Royals defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 starting five AAA players and three AA players.
The city wanted him gone.
On August 2nd, 2022, Royals fans got their wish. After six years of mostly personal ups and team downs, and the most intense goodbye in Royals memory, Whit Merrifield was ironically traded to the… Toronto Blue Jays. He lived up to his promise to vaccinate in order to chase playoff hopes. The Toronto Blue Jays would be swept in the inaugural best-of-three Wild Card Series. Whit Merrifield would hit 1-5 on his first ever playoff series.
Merrifield would go on to appear in one more postseason, again with Toronto, in 2023. They were again swept in the Wild Card Series. He is 1-6 in the postseason in his career.
The Royals would break their 8 year postseason skid in 2024, sweeping the Orioles in the Wild Card before losing to the Yankees in 4 games in the ALDS. Neither player received in the Merrifield trade was on the 2024 roster.
So who won? Nobody.
The organization wasted six years of his career in the minors, he gave his all throughout every below .500 season, was statistically their best player for almost all of six years. He had one of the best runs in Royals history during his time in KC and at the first sign of trouble was buried and drove out of town. He never lived up to his lofty time with the Royals again. Conversely, the Royals lost one of their brightest homegrown success stories in franchise history for basically nothing.