The Padres have locked up another young player who has excited the city and who they believe will be a cornerstone of a championship club for years to come.
And they have done it at a wholly reasonable price.
Jackson Merrill, their 21-year-old center fielder who just began his second big-league season, has agreed to a nine-year contract extension that begins in 2026 and guarantees him $135 million.
“This is exactly where I want to be,” Merrill said Wedesday morning. “I’ve never imagined myself with any other team.”
The contract has no opt-outs, a limited no-trade clause that allows Merrill to veto a trade to any one of a list of eight teams and includes a club option for 2035. The club option, which is worth a minimum of $21 million, switches to a player option if Merrill finishes in the top five in MVP voting in any year of the contract.
Beginning in 2023, Merrill’s annual salaries will increase by $1 million for every year Merrill gets 500 plate appearances, which means the deal could rightly be considered a nine-year, $165 million deal if Merrill stays healthy.
His 2035 option year also increases $1 million for every year he finishes in the top 10 in MVP voting. The maximum value of the contract is $204 million over 10 years.
It stands to reason that Merrill, who was drafted out of high school in 2021 and was an All-Star his rookie season, could have made significantly more had he played out his arbitration years and become a free agent in 2030. Or he could have gotten hurt or had a drop-off in performance.
None of it mattered to him.
“Just even (having) an opportunity to sign with the San Diego Padres is enough for me,” he said. “I also feel like there comes a line where you know your worth, you know your value. Listen, I know, like, there’s contracts out there that are beyond absurd. There are super amounts of money. But having a relationship with a real human being and a real team like I have here, you can’t beat that, you know? You can’t just sign for $700 million and want everything to be perfect. I’ve got people all around the clubhouse that are supporting me, supporting my family. They ask about my personal life every day. So I’m just grateful for that. I know it’s gonna be the same way for the next nine years.”
The Merrill deal is the second large contract given out since John Seidler took over as team chairman in February, along with the four-year, $55 million free-agent deal that starting pitcher Nick Pivetta signed at the start of spring training.
“It’s a pretty strong signal that not only is the commitment the same,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said, “but in some ways it is accelerated.”
Locking up Merrill essentially gives the Padres three layers of star players.
Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts are 32 years old and have deals that run through 2033. Fernando Tatis Jr. is 26 and is signed through 2034. Merrill turns 22 on April 19.
“Happy he’s gonna be here for a long time,” Machado said. “You know, we got a nice little core group now, and adding our youngster to it just makes it more exciting for the city and for this ballclub.”
The pact is reminiscent of the one Tatis signed in 2021, though at a price tag far less than the $340 million the Padres awarded Tatis over a 14-year span.
“It’ll be funny looking at him in right field every day just knowing that it’s gonna be like that for a really long time,” Merrill said. “Tati has been just like me. He’s a kid playing the game.”
The team-friendly nature of Merrill’s contract is not all that surprising when considering Merrill, the son of two elementary school teachers, has said he felt like whatever he signed for would be more than he could ever spend. He has repeatedly expressed his love for the Padres. The Padres found out early in their relationship that he would be amenable to an early deal.
While talks were conducted in earnest over the final few weeks of spring training and into the first week of the season, this has been a years-long process.
The Padres first approached Merrill and his representatives in early 2023, when he was playing in Single-A Fort Wayne. The team broached a deal again before last season. With counsel from his agents, Drew Hardee and Josh Knipp, Merrill declined to engage other than to make it clear he was interested in being with the organization for a long time.
Preller and Merrill were asked independently of each other about when they knew this was a match that could result in a long-term commitment.
“The first time I met him,” Preller said.
“I think literally from the moment that A.J. talked to me for the first time, before the draft ever even happened in 2021,” Merrill said. “The Padres were the first team that reached out to me, ever scouted me. They believed in me from Day 1. They trusted me, and they wanted me. … A.J. has always been there by my side, just rooting me on, being my biggest supporter. I think from that first instance just talking to him, I wanted to be here forever.”
The success of Merrill is particularly sweet for the organization because he is such a scouting success story. The Padres were on him before anyone, as he played in lightly scouted Maryland. They worked hard to keep other teams from becoming aware of their great interest and considered it a magnificent coup that they were able to get him with the 27th overall pick.
“It’s really tough to find diamonds in the rough and under-the-radar players,” said Preller, who on Wednesday told a story of trying to be incognito while scouting Merrill in high school that has become legend in the Padres front office. “There’s a lot of information out there. And honestly, Jackson was a guy that a lot of teams didn’t have targeted as a first-round-type talent.”
Preller noted the work of the army of scouts the Padres dispatched to watch Merrill play high school and travel ball. He also praised vice president of baseball operations Nick Ennis, who took the lead years ago with Merrill’s agents. Assistant general manager Josh Stein helped conceive the deal, which keeps the Padres’ cash output relatively low the next few years. Because the escalator clauses don’t begin paying out until 2030, the contract also carries an average annual value of just $15 million for the next four seasons, which is important when it comes to the Competitive Balance Tax payroll figure.
Really, though, this contract was done because Merrill wanted it to be.
Everything about him has essentially screamed he is the kind of player who would be amenable to this type of deal in order to concentrate on playing the game he loves in the place he loves playing it.
“Winning and just winning only,” Merrill said of his intentions now that the deal is done. “There’s so much in the contract with money and all that, but my goal is to win. It has always been to win. It has always been to dominate with my boys on the field. And I’m just happy I get to do it for a long amount of time now.”
A shortstop in the minor leagues, Merrill became the fourth-youngest player in the Divisional Era (since 1969) to start in center field on opening day when he was there for the Padres in their 2024 opener. He ended up batting .292 with an .826 OPS last season, being selected to the National League All-Star team and finishing second to Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Merrill was just the sixth rookie 21 years old or younger in MLB history to hit at least 24 home runs, six triples and 31 doubles. Also on that list are Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Frank Robinson and Ted Williams.
Merrill’s 5.3 WAR was the eighth highest by a rookie since 2000 and it ranked seventh among all National League position players. His .934 OPS in 89 games from June 8 through the end of the season was tied with the Mets Francisco Lindor for second highest in the National League behind only the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (1.089).
His six game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning or later were the most ever by a player 21 or younger. He is the only player of any age to ever hit three game-tying home runs in an 11-day span.
And for all that, the Padres’ comfort in awarding this contract is based largely on the fact he has already established himself as a leader.
“He’s the guy that brings the energy,” pitcher Michael King said recently. “… He’s 21 years old, and he just loves baseball. And that totally spreads throughout the locker room. Having a guy like that, when you’re in the grind of 162 games, it’s refreshing.”
Merrill used to call coaches in the minor leagues to have them unlock the batting cages early.
Now that he is in the majors, he is almost always the first player at Petco Park — so early sometimes that he waits in his car so as not to beat the clubhouse attendants.
On a Saturday morning after playing the previous night, while the Padres were in Phoenix playing the Diamondbacks for their final series of 2024, Merrill drove the half-hour to the team’s complex in Peoria, Ariz., to watch Padres minor leaguers participate in the Instructional League.
“I care,” Merrill said at the time. “It’s not just about the big leagues. … I’m just trying to go and learn who we’ve got down there and stay in touch. It’s hard during the year to keep up with those guys. I wanted to see what we’re working with.”
He worked out at the Padres’ complex in Peoria most of the winter. And in spring training, when other starters would leave the stadium after they were removed from games, as established players virtually always do, Merrill stayed in the dugout through the final out.
“These guys are my team,” Merrill said after one such game, pointing to the reserves and minor leaguers packing up their gear. “These boys are my boys.”
Merrill made it clear this all-encompassing approach will continue.
“A.J. and I talked about it when we were talking about a contract in general — that my involvement with the organization is just going to be a lot more,” Merrill said. “I want to be involved in the minor leagues. I want to be involved in the community. I want to be involved in kind of everything that goes on. I know some stuff is out of my control and out of my reach and it’s not my business. But there is also a lot of stuff that is my business.”
