MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — All right, OK, let’s get to it. Whit Merrifield says he got vaccinated. Three weeks ago, when the Kansas City Royals came to Rogers Centre to play the Toronto Blue Jays, he didn’t make the trip. He went on the restricted list. He forfeited four games’ pay and service time.
“If something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the post-season,” Merrifield said at the time, “maybe that changes.”
In Kansas City, those comments didn’t go over well. A lot of fans were hurt. You’d get vaccinated to help another team win but not ours? And a lot of them let Merrifield know about it. Out and about, on social media, from the stands at Kauffman Stadium. And as the trade deadline neared and Merrifield realized he was very likely to be moved, possibly even to Toronto of all places, he decided he didn’t want to hurt another fanbase all over again.
“For a couple of weeks now, I’ve understood that this might be a possibility. And I’ll be in Toronto when the team goes there,” he said Thursday, wearing Blue Jays colours in the visitors’ dugout at Target Field in Minneapolis. “It was something that I probably could have handled a little better. But what happened, happened. And I’m excited to be a Blue Jay. I’m excited to get to Toronto and play at the Rogers Centre as my home.
“I’ll be in Toronto when the team gets to Toronto.”
And of course Merrifield got vaccinated. Why would anyone think he’d do otherwise? It would be legitimately shocking if the Blue Jays traded Max Castillo, a 23-year-old swingman with strong fastball command who’s pitched to a 3.05 ERA since making his big-league debut earlier this season, and Samad Taylor, a toolsy 24-year-old who plays multiple positions and likely would’ve been poached in last off-season’s Rule 5 draft if it happened, for a veteran utility player who can’t enter the country where half the club’s games take place.
The Blue Jays would never execute a transaction under those circumstances, just as they’d never compromise a player’s privacy by disclosing his health information publicly without consent. Merrifield’s vaccination decision was his to make and his to share. And now that it’s been made and shared, everyone can move forward.
Editor’s Note: The COVID-19 situation, in sports and around the world, is constantly evolving. Readers in Canada can consult the country’s public health website for the latest.
“What an exciting team. I’m so excited to be in this clubhouse, get to know some of these guys that I’ve played against from afar,” Merrifield said before chipping in a pair of hits as the Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins Thursday, 9-3. “As soon as I got traded, I called Ryan Goins and Justin Smoak — two of my really good friends. And they both said the same thing: ‘Man, you’re going to love it up there.’ I’ve only been on the opposing side. Had some choice words thrown my way. So, I’m excited to be on the other side.”
Not that it was easy leaving a Royals organization Merrifield spent the first dozen years of his professional career with and calls “my family.” He came a long way there. Merrifield was selected out of college by the Royals with the 269th overall pick in the 2010 draft and signed to a $100,000 bonus. He spent the next six years slowly working his way up the organizational ladder until finally, at the age of 27, he broke through to the big-leagues in 2016.
From there, he led the league in hits twice, in steals three times. He was a two-time all-star, including last season when he put up 42 doubles and 40 steals. Many of the coaches who helped develop him in the minors eventually joined him on Kansas City’s major-league staff. Merrifield’s known for weeks that his time with the Royals was coming to an end. But there’s no preparing yourself for those goodbyes.
“I didn’t expect it to be as tough as it was,” he said. “Saying goodbye to a lot of those guys, a lot of players that I’ve spent the majority of my career with, it was more emotional than I thought it would be. It’s part of the game. It’s part of the business. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
Of course, much of Merrifield’s season has been about getting through things that haven’t been easy, from the regretful vaccination comments he made to the miserable slump he began this year that’s still dragging down his numbers today.
Merrifield remembers looking up at the Camden Yards scoreboard during a series in Baltimore a week into May and thinking, ‘Man, am I really hitting .130?’ Not quite. It was .135 with a .341 OPS through his first 113 plate appearances. He was about to be dropped to No. 8 in the Royals batting order after leading off or hitting second for the club every day for the last half-decade. It was a rough time.
But nothing seemed off in the batter’s box. If anything, Merrifield felt good — like the ball had been jumping off his bat as well as it ever has. He just wasn’t seeing results. Maybe it was the deadened baseballs; maybe the cold weather; maybe just bad luck. Well, certainly bad luck. Off the top of his head, Merrifield can tell you about 10 well-struck, early-season balls that simply didn’t drop in.
Whatever it was, a correction has been occurring ever since. Over 307 plate appearances from May 10 until he was traded, Merrifield hit .280/.332/.423, good for a 112 wRC+. He strung together separate hit streaks of 10, seven, and six games. He hasn’t had quite enough runway to drag his season-long numbers all the way out of the crater they started in. But he’s brought them up pretty far.
And he was a good bet to do so. His barrel rate and average exit velocity on the season are right in line with his norms; his strikeout and walk rates are both a tick better than over his career; his hard-hit rate’s up, too. Despite the early-season slump, you won’t find anything alarming in Merrifield’s peripherals.
What you will find is a suspiciously low .266 BABIP— his career BABIP is .323 and has never gone lower than .295 in a single season — plus sizable gaps between his actual and expected batting average (.240 BA; .253 xBA), slugging percentage (.352 SLG; .377 xSLG), and weighted on-base average (.282 wOBA; .303 xwOBA).
How much stock you put into these metrics that suggest Merrifield’s impacting pitches the same way he always has, just not receiving the results you’d expect based on his quality of contact, is up to you. There’s no disputing the fact his season-long line is that of a below-average MLB hitter. But Merrifield’s 80 wRC+ clearly doesn’t tell the entire story on the surface.
At least, that’s how Zack Greinke feels. When Merrifield was traded, one of the first texts he received was from the veteran Royals right-hander, who didn’t send him any pleasantries, any words of encouragement, or any actual words at all. Greinke merely sent a Tweet comparing Merrifield’s actual numbers to his expected ones, demonstrating how unfortunate he’d been.
“That was it. There was nothing else but the Tweet. And so, I saw him later on that day, and I was like, ‘Zach, I got your Tweet. What’s up?’” Merrifield remembered. “And he goes, ‘Yeah, man, I just want to let you know that you’re a good player. Even though sometimes the numbers might not show it.’”
It’s a good reminder. Even at 33, Merrifield’s still a productive, versatile player, capable of raising a club’s floor at any position around the diamond besides shortstop and catcher.
And while he’s undoubtedly lost a step in the field and on the basepaths from his 2017-2020 prime, losing only a step off elite speed and defensive metrics means you’re still an exceptionally skilled player. Merrifield’s sprint speed this season ranks within MLB’s 83rd percentile, putting him right in line with Teoscar Hernandez and George Springer. The only Blue Jay measured faster is late-game speed specialist Bradley Zimmer.
Merrifield’s ability to sustain above-average athleticism into his mid-30’s is good news for a club positioned to employ him through next season, as the Blue Jays are. At a modest $6.75-million salary for 2023, it isn’t hard to envision Merrifield providing ample surplus value if he keeps making contact the way he has, running as well as he is, and avoiding the injured list which he last visited in 2014.
The $18-million mutual option in his contract for 2024, when Merrifield will be 35, is another story. But with only a $500,000 buyout attached to that option, there’s little risk there for the Blue Jays.
Of course, they’ll worry about that then. For now, the Blue Jays have a multipurpose piece who can help them this year and next, a needed layer of insurance against injury to another regular, and a ballplayer who’s extremely motivated to compete for them — wherever the games are taking place.
“I feel like this is a ballclub that fits into my game. Action, excitement, versatility. Guys out there like to hit, like to swing the bat,” Merrifield said. “When you’re playing against certain teams from the outside, there’s teams that come in that you just feel an energy from. And this is one of those teams. From top to bottom. It’s just exciting baseball. I’m excited. I mean, I’ve said excited a lot. But I’m excited to be a part of this team.”
VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
